The Umbrella Chronicles#2: Descent into Hell
by Mark 'Manix' Odell
Summary: Things just get worse and worse for Leon - What do you do when your kids are kidnapped and they're being held in a secret underground lab with the most powerful of all Umbrella's creations? what he usually does, of course! (COMPLETE VERSION)- PLEASE R AND


  
  
  
  
  
  
  
LEON  
  
Still falls the Rain  
  
It was approaching winter once again. We could feel it, it was in our bones. Then again, in London it always feels like winter, apart from when it's deep in summer or early autumn. I didn't feel the cold that much; I had been brought up in New York where winters got quite extreme a lot of the time. Christmas time, that's what it was. Christmas time, mistletoe and wine. It was supposedly the season of good cheer, but our mission was hardly the most cheerful of things, even in the euphoria of Claire giving birth. We could see that London was preparing for it, you could tell because people cheered up and stopped being so miserable for a change. However, Christmas lights were going up everywhere, decorations were being put up, shop windows were showing off exclusive Christmas bargains and wassailers turned up at the door with alarming regularity. Christmas lasted a long time in the running up.   
Nonetheless, time had passed with astonishing force. It was nearly a year since we'd escaped from Angel Island, almost an entire year since we'd destroyed the Nemesis in a last ditch battle to survive. We had been careless. Not so now.   
It had been three months since I proposed to Claire, and things had not changed vastly for the good. Due to our obvious position outside New York, we were forced to leave the country and go to Britain, where we settled in a house belonging to Jill's father.  
We also faced intimidation from Umbrella, a prospect that none of us were too happy with, least of all Claire and I who now had a baby girl and a baby boy to look after, at only two months old each. Claire and I had just been able to squeeze in a wedding before their birth. So, she became Claire Kennedy. My wife. Married at 26? It's an odd thought.  
So our children, Ada Kennedy and Steve Kennedy lay sleeping in their cots in the house at the same time I sat on the back seat of the single storey bus, red yes, but hardly the huge imposing buses that so many American children had had stereotyped into their brains. Also went with the stereotype was that all Britons spoke like Lords and ladies, and they always drank tea. Well, I can say pretty truthfully that most of the British populace I had met so far did not speak at all like lords and ladies and they were interested in other (sometimes not entirely legal) substances other than tea.   
I sat on the bus, staring out of the rain-drenched window into rain-drenched London. It wasn't tropical rain. It was just dreary, grey rain you associated with most major cities, even in the US. I sighed, and looked around the bus. It contained an old lady who was nattering to another old lady beside her about her sisters legs and the problems she was having with them, a teenager who sat glumly with walkman playing far too loud and a drowsy businessman who clutched a briefcase, managing to look very official and horribly depressed at the same time.   
I had only done this bus-ride three or four times, so I was still a little unsure where to get off. It was my job to go shopping on Tuesdays, we all took it in turns to do odd jobs. I mostly went with Rebecca, since Claire was mostly at home looking after the children, and I was looking after them when Claire went out. Or we looked after them together. When we weren't discussing Umbrella's next actions with the others.  
I had changed considerably since the children had been born. I was a little on edge, tetchy even. I had been feeling anxious about the safety of Ada and Steve, and both Claire and I were fiercely protective of them, like lions guarding their young cubs. We were taking on the responsibilities of parents pretty quickly, and had been told by Jill that we behaved like it already.   
Yet, we knew that keeping our children safe would be a harder task than it actually sounded.  
Today, Rebecca wasn't with me - She was recovering from a nasty bout of the flu, so I was alone. It took a while for me to realise that the bus was stopping, and that it was also my stop. I stood up, walked down the aisle clinging to the metal poles, thanked the Bus Driver who nodded in acknowledgement, and allowed me to step off the bus. I stepped off into the rain, tugged my jacket into a slightly more acceptable position to prevent the large raindrops penetrating my neck, and jogged down the glistening pavements, round the corner and right up to the front door, a rather solemn looking dark blue door. After knocking vigorously on it, it opened, and Chris stood in the doorway.  
"Wet?" he said, dryly.  
"Haha" I said, in a similar tone of voice, and walked in, shaking myself off.  
"Success?"  
"Yes" I said, sighing "I assure you, we will have no problem with breakfast cereals from now on"   
Chris smiled.  
"Good"  
I put down the bag, threw off my jacket, and went straight into the sitting room, where I saw Claire, holding baby Ada in her arms. Ada was quiet, so I assumed she was asleep. I stepped up quietly to Claire, and whispered  
"Hey"   
She looked at me and smiled.  
"Hey" she replied, and allowed me to kiss her.  
She pointed at the baby.  
"She's asleep" she whispered.  
I gazed lovingly down at my daughter. Even at two months, she was enchanting.   
"How is she?" I asked.  
"Absolutely fine" she replied "She hasn't cried all day"  
"And Steve?"  
"The same. I put him to bed a while ago" she replied.  
I sat beside her, and gently took Ada for a few moments. She was light, but most babies are. I remember being in hospital when Claire had felt it was finally time. I remember pacing the floor. Would they be okay?   
Then, I was told I could enter, and walked into Claire's room, seeing Claire lying in bed, exhausted but happy, and with two newborn babies in her arms. It was the first proper time I actually burst into tears. It was childish to cry, I had always held, it was something that only wimps ever did. I'd entered the police force like that, but when I met the woman Ada, the woman I named our girl after, I'd had a slight change of heart. When I'd discovered Sherry was my sister and that Claire was pregnant, I had changed a lot. Happiness isn't easy to come by, I've learned, especially when your nightmares are about zombies and flesh eating mutants.  
Scott Franks had long since departed my mind, I no longer had his infectious presence boring into my skull and I was glad. While I was thankful for his aid in helping us escape, I was resentful for his irritating presence, his insistence on hanging around in my head for nigh on three weeks and his patronising way of talking to me. While memories of my biological father, William Birkin, are non-existent, I still felt it important to visit the cemetery in New York where both Annette and William had memorial stones. Sherry and I had gone regularly when we'd still been in the USA, but things were different.  
At that moment, thirteen-year old Sherry Birkin walked in. She'd grown, but only a little. She was struggling through adolescence, which showed by her occasional mood swings that caught all of us COMPLETELY off guard. Sometimes she was over-cheerful and hugging me more than she should have, and on other occasions she was sullen and depressed. Height was not her big thing, but evidence of her...uh...womanhood was already showing. A little.   
"Hi, Leon!" she said, cheerfully.  
I mentally exhaled in relief. Thank god, she was in a good mood today.   
"Hi Sherry, been helping Claire look after Steve and Ada?"  
"Yep" she said "Sure have, right Claire?"  
Claire smiled at Sherry.  
"Sure have, Sherry"  
"So" I said, settling back with my arm around Claire "Anything new?"  
"Nah" Sherry said "There isn't much. Chris says he's got some stuff we can talk about tonight around the table, but that's it"  
I sighed. Little progress.  
"Where is everybody else?"  
"Rebecca's in bed recovering from the flu, Chris is waiting for a couple of e-mails to come through and Jill's gone to the Airport to pick up Barry" Claire replied.  
"Barry? I thought he was supposed to have come ages ago"  
"Well, he's had a little trouble with his wife and daughter...I think he's been trying to put them off coming with him"   
"Understandable" I said.   
"Right"  
We sat in silence, until I heard a sneeze upstairs. I placed Ada back in Claire's arms, and decided to say Hi to Rebecca.  
"Just going to see Rebecca, I'll be back soon"   
I went upstairs, and across the landing to Rebecca's room.  
Inside, was Rebecca lying in bed, not looking at all well. She was pale, and wrapped up thickly under the duvet which she was snuggled in.   
  
"Oh, Hi Leon...ACHOO!" she sneezed loudly, and her slightly pallid skin at first gave me the frightening impression that she had caught the T-Virus, but she'd been like this for a while now, and only now was she beginning to recover from her particularly severe bout of flu.  
"How are you?" I asked, and suddenly realised the stupidity of the question.  
"What a STUPID question" she said, rolling her eyes, but still smiling wanly.   
"Sorry" I laughed.  
"You know something? CHOO!" she sneezed again, and wiped her nose with a tissue.  
"What?"  
"Claire really misses you when you go out - I can hear her from up here. She's saying things like 'Of course he'll be back, of course he'll be back' - I think she's worried for you and the children"  
I nodded, this was true. As well as feeling very protective of our children, Claire and I were also very protective of each other now. Things had changed more than I realised.  
"Well...I don't think there's too much to worry about really, Umbrella don't know we're here, right?"  
I could tell from Rebecca's expression that I was just being naïve and hopeful.  
"Believe me" she said darkly "They'll find us - Good things just don't last when you're fighting a Mega-corporation like Umbrella"   
I nodded, sadly.   
"Do you think it'll ever be over? Like, one day when we kick their asses good and proper and they'll come crashing down?" Rebecca asked.  
"I don't know" I said, truthfully "I just don't know, Becky"  
She sighed, and lay down. Within a few moments, she had fallen asleep. It didn't take long.   
I stood up, and went downstairs to where Claire was.  
"I'll order us a Thai meal or something" Chris was saying "Can't be bothered to make any dinner"  
"Fine" said Claire, not really listening.   
Then, there was the sound of crying from the next room.  
"Steve's woken up" said Claire, making to move, but I eased her back down.  
"I'll see to him" I said, calmly.  
"Are you sure?"  
"I want to be a good dad"   
She smiled, and nodded.  
"Okay"  
I ran into the next room, and saw Steve in his cot, flailing his arms around like an upside-down spider. I ran and picked him up, and gently rocked him. Steve quietened down a little. After a session in which I hummed a song to him, which was actually the theme to 'Miami Vice' he was quiet again, and looked up at me with the same colour eyes as mine.   
He'd look like me someday, I reflected. Another Kennedy, another me.   
I wished him luck. As Steve began to fall asleep again, I lay him down back in his cot. Fast asleep again. He only had a few hours to catch up, so I walked out of the room and back to Claire.  
"He's asleep" I said, and sat down with Claire. Sherry was watching TV, and Claire and I decided to enjoy our quality time together. But it wasn't to be, because a few minutes later the doorbell rang.   
We all stood up, and walked to the door to see who it was.   
Chris opened the door, and on the doorstep stood a smiling but soaked Jill and behind her the large, beefy and bearded figure known as Barry Burton. He was carrying some suitcases, which were unceremoniously dumped in the hallway as he walked in with Jill.  
"Hi" he said, smiling "I'm Barry, and you are?"  
"Leon, Leon S. Kennedy"   
We shook hands.  
"Pleased to meetcha" he said "I'm sure we'll get on just fine"  
He turned to Claire, and smiled - before noticing the wedding ring on her finger, and as if he was terrified of being unfaithful to his wife, he leapt back, his tone immediately changing, his face reddening.  
"Oh god...I'm sorry...I...It's just that me and my wife aren't getting on and...I'm really ashamed now..."  
"Okay, okay...Just don't get mushy..." Claire said, trying to prevent the big man from bursting into tears or something like that.   
He walked with a hurried pace, and to my amusement his face was creasing up in embarrassment.   
"Huh" Claire said "This guy had better keep his hand off my ass"  
"Well..." I put my arms around her "...Which sane man couldn't?"  
She rolled her eyes, grinning.  
"You're very cheeky" she said, and we kissed.  
When we released, I put my arm around her and guided her into the next room.  
  
Mission Renewed  
  
We didn't know what time it was when the rain finally stopped. Perhaps the clouds had decided to retire for the evening. However, a mist was now sliding over London, its thick murkiness entering every crevice, every nook every cranny as I watched it slide past the window of the kitchen where we were going to have our meeting, which was on the first floor. Well, I use the word 'meeting' in its broadest possible term, it was really just an occasion where we sat down with hot chocolate, biscuits and talked about how to take down Umbrella.  
Barry sat there in jeans and a very thick shirt, his combat uniform for the S.T.A.R.S currently in his room. I wore green trousers, and a white T-Shirt and the dressing style of everybody around the table was very similar. Casual, and laid-back.   
I sat down, waiting for Claire.  
"Where's Claire?" Chris said, impatiently "She's late!"  
Rebecca sat there, blowing her nose.  
"Uh..." I said "Well..."  
"Yes?"  
"She's...feeding Steve and Ada"  
Chris turned the colour of a beetroot.   
"Ah" he said.  
"Right" I said, finishing his thoughts.   
Claire strolled into the small kitchen we had, and smiled.  
"Is there a problem?"  
"NoNO!" Chris said, hurriedly.  
"I was just-"  
"I KNOW!" Chris said, hands on ears. The subject of breast-feeding had not come up often in conversation, but if any mention was made of the subject of having children, Chris became inexplicably embarrassed. Not that I talk about any parts of the female anatomy, you understand.  
Jill sat there, toying with the spoon she was using to stir her coffee.  
"You've got important info Chris?" she said, she was obviously impatient.  
Chris returned to his previous serious state.  
"Yes"  
The table was small, round and not particularly exciting. In the middle sat a printout, which Chris said he had spent nearly half an hour just printing. The pages were crisp, white and new, and Chris grabbed them before any of our enquiring minds thought of picking it up. It was his show, not ours.   
Now Chris was the only one amongst us with a whiskey, and as if it was contagious, we could smell the fumes from the glass that sat opposite his chair on the table, and as he stood there ready for his little presentation, we all felt slightly intoxicated.  
"Okay" Chris began "As you may know, our actions against Umbrella have been somewhat non-existent as of late"  
This was true. Since the Angel Island incident, very little action had actually been taken against Umbrella. Legal action was also minimal, although we had appeared in court very briefly with relation to the 'mysterious' explosion just off the coast of Vietnam.   
Chris continued to speak.  
"We are unable to get close to any of Umbrella's employees or any of their labs because they're hidden"  
"How do you suggest we get close?" Claire asked.  
"That will be the hardest part"   
We all groaned. We just KNEW he'd say something like that.   
"From my sources, and that includes Jill's compatriot Carlos, who cannot be here tonight..." As he spoke I could see just a hint of jealousy at Carlos in his eyes. I hadn't met Carlos, but it was obvious he felt like he was competition for Jill's affections.  
I could see Jill also see that look, and she was obviously flattered, exasperated and sheepish at the same time.   
"...We have found that all of Umbrella's employees involved in Virus research of any kind at the company in any of its labs are protected by a bureaucratic system, a kind of masquerade"  
"A masquerade?" Sherry asked.   
"Yes...A cloak, or a mask of secrecy that hides all of the most important staff in Umbrella. Unfortunately, our only back door has been closed off - Scott Franks passwords and ID card are no longer useful since Umbrella have now deleted him from their records"  
There were murmurs of annoyance and exasperation around the table.   
"Great" I decided to say "We're almost back to square one"  
"Yes, but I have a source in Prague who says he can get us inside info on Umbrella's masquerade"  
"I don't know" Jill said, suspiciously "Are you sure that you can trust him? For all we know he could turn us over to Umbrella"  
Chris nodded.  
"True, but we don't have much in the way of any inside info - We can't bring them down in our current position"   
"So can we hide our weapons if we go? How do we get there with our weapons?"  
"We're all STARS members, all licensed gun-holders with badges and all we need"   
There was a cough from Sherry.  
"...Except Sherry" Chris added  
"My contact wants us to meet him in Prague - We have an address"  
He waved a piece of paper at us.   
"Okay" Barry said, for the first time "If that's our only chance then I'd go with it - I don't doubt Chris"  
"Yeah" Rebecca said "Let's go for it" She sneezed.  
"I'm in" I heard Claire say.  
"Me too" I found myself saying, but then I said "What do we do with Steve and Ada?"  
"Take them with us" Chris said.  
"And what if we enter a combat situation? Where do we put them?" Claire asked.  
"Well...uh...How about if we need to go somewhere, then two of us remain behind to look after them in the hotel we stay in or something"  
Barry brightened up.  
"I'll volunteer to do that...I need to redeem myself, so I think that looking after them may help me"  
"I'll do it too" Rebecca offered "I love kids"  
Nobody had asked us I found, and Claire spoke my thoughts by saying  
"Hey, they're OUR kids!"  
"We need you two - None the least Leon" Chris said.  
My eyes narrowed.  
"Why me?"  
"We have also found out that instead of trying to kill you, Umbrella are now trying to capture you"  
I practically leapt out of my seat.  
"WHAT?! Capture me?!" I nearly screamed at him "Because I'm a Birkin? If that's the case, isn't Sherry in danger too?! So we're both threatened by capture?!"  
Chris put his hands up.  
"Yes, but we're seeking to make sure that doesn't occur. So staying here would not help, because they might know we're here anyway, which would make you even easier targets"  
I leaned back, the shock, fear and anger filling my mind as I tried to fully comprehend what Chris was saying. Sherry and I were in danger, and Sherry was also reacting. She had turned pale, and was suddenly shouting in the turmoil of the room.  
"I...I...I'm in trouble?!" she said, panicking.  
There was a sudden hushed silence.  
"Maybe they'll try and go for something easier..." Claire suddenly said "Like..."  
There was a dreadful pause.  
"Oh god..." Claire said "Please dear lord...no!"   
As she said this, there was a loud crash from downstairs, and the sound of the babies screaming.  
Claire and I looked at each other in utter horror, and then we said in unison  
"THE KIDS!!"  
We leapt to our feet, the chain reaction spreading around the room as the rest of the assembled company got up, and with Claire and myself far in the lead, we ran downstairs, and I pulled out my magnum, ready to take out any intruders in defence of my children.  
As I ran into the appointed nursery, my eyes moved from the open window to the cots. They were empty!  
At that moment, I realised Umbrella had found us.   
"NO!!!" I cried, Claire screamed out in anger.   
We then ran, and I leapt out of the window into the cool evening of London. The mist was everywhere, but even as I looked into the thick pea-soup fog, I could see a group of figures running down the street. I could vaguely hear a cry - A cry that came from the night, a cry from Steve that shattered the cool silence of the night.  
In the silence of the night, I ran to follow, as did Claire and Chris. The group of men were slow, but they were just able to keep ahead. Then, they ducked off into an alley and I was able to grab one of their legs as he skidded on the wet slippery concrete of the thin alley. I felt the rough cloth meet my hands, and he lost his footing, the thick army boot smacking into my forehead as we both fell to the ground like the cheetah catches its prey, and I pinned him down, my magnum barrel suddenly stuck down his throat.  
Chris was running on ahead to try and catch the baby-snatchers, and I was knelt over the scum I had my Magnum pointed at. I was enraged. I was so angry. Umbrella had pushed and pushed themselves, and now they had pushed too far. My children, my livelihood. Stolen by them.   
My face felt like it was burning-I was saturated with anger. He was an Umbrella soldier, I could tell by the familiar white and red Umbrella logo on his arm. He had been wearing a gas mask, but I'd wrenched it off to reveal a sullen faced, dark-haired young man whose mouth was somewhat full.   
"COME ON YOU SONOFABITCH!!!" I screamed at him "WHY HAVE YOU STOLEN MY CHILDREN?!!"   
I was so angry, I nearly pulled the trigger.   
"Mmmph..." he said, my magnum preventing him from speaking.   
I pulled out the gun with such force it nearly broke his jaw.   
"...I..." he began, but I clubbed him with the butt of my magnum, breaking his cheekbone.   
"SPEAK!!!" I screamed.   
"Okay...Okay!!" he snapped.  
"Answer my question" I hissed.  
"...I don't know much about my mission...All I can say is that I was ordered to take the kids of Leon Kennedy and Claire Redfield and to deliver them to the appropriate address..."  
"WHERE?!" I demanded, loudly.   
He wouldn't speak at first, but I pointed the magnum at him again.  
"Don't want to talk? All I have to do is squeeze and the new decoration on the street pavements will be you!!"   
He was sweating, under pressure.   
"OKAY!! OKAY!! Finzustown, a small town in the middle of the Czech Republic - Miles from anywhere!! It's a huge façade.."  
"I may just let you live...But I won't be merciful or even half as friendly if we meet again"  
The man scrambled away from my grip, running into the mist.   
At that moment, Chris ran back breathless.  
"I lost them. This place is too frigging foggy"  
Claire also ran up, tears flowing freely down her face.  
"Ada...Steve..." was all she could say, and I got up and held her tightly.   
I also felt tears sliding down my cheeks.   
I could see Chris through my lens of tears, and saw him biting his lip. I heard somebody come up behind me, it was Jill.   
"My god...They took Steve and Ada...?" I heard her say. I could vaguely hear a brief exchange of gestures between Jill and Chris.   
I didn't say anything. I couldn't say anything. Neither did I want to say anything. I just couldn't think of anything to say. I was holding my wife, my dear Claire in my arms, both of us weeping.  
All I could think of was revenge. I would get them back. My children. I swore at that moment that I would get the children that Claire and I had, bring them back - and destroy Umbrella.   
  
Daddy's coming  
  
We were absolutely silent in the apartment, Rebecca had chosen to get some sleep, which was wise of her in the circumstances, Barry had decided to find something under his fingernails in his room. Claire and I were sitting on the sofa, alone. Sherry was in tears in her room, Chris and Jill were sitting in the kitchen, not even daring to speak. It was complete and total shock. Claire and I hadn't even thought that they'd even consider such an act of kidnapping.   
"Why..." Claire suddenly whispered "...Did they take them?"  
"I don't know...What could our kids interest them for? They're only babies"  
"Ransom? Intimidation?" she suggested.  
I shook my head.  
"They're not the kind for that. They don't go in for simple kidnapping - They wanted them for a reason, and I don't think it's to intimidate us"  
She grasped me tighter, I responded by holding her harder.  
"They've pushed us too far this time..." she said, with acid in her voice "...This time Umbrella are going to need more than a Tyrant to protect their worthless hides"  
I nodded.  
"If I meet the guy who planned all this, I'm going to stick my magnum so far up his ass he'll have to use a voice-box for the rest of his life"  
Despite our grim promises for Umbrella, very little had been done.  
All we could do was sit and bemoan the fate of Steve and Ada.  
Chris came into the room, and noted the bad atmosphere.   
"Feeling a little better?" he asked quietly.  
We shook our heads.  
"Okay...Don't worry, we'll get 'em back" he said, encouragingly.  
The encouragement was welcome, although with less confidence than hoped.   
"Right" Chris said "Where could they have taken them?"  
"I wish I knew" Claire admitted, softly.   
Then, at that moment, the recollection of my interrogation with one of the Umbrella soldiers came back to me. He told me where they were to be taken. What was its name again? F...F something...F...Damn, if only I could remember!...F...It was in the Czech republic, wasn't it? Hang on...Finzustown! That's it!  
"I know" I said.  
Claire and Chris turned to me.  
"How?"  
"That soldier told me...I had him at gunpoint...I let him go because a charge of murder in a big city like London wouldn't go down too well"   
There were nods of agreement.   
"So...Where are they taking our son and daughter?" Claire asked, softly.  
"Finzustown, in the Czech Republic - That's where they're going"  
"Right" Chris said "Let's try to get bookings on a flight to Prague, meet the contact and then go to Finzustown...It's more than likely he knows where that place is and what's going on"  
Claire and I looked at each other.  
We had little choice. It was the best idea we had so far.  
We nodded.  
Nothing else, just nodded.  
"Okay" Chris said, going into the other room "I'll make arrangements"  
  
Claire and I were sleepless that night. Would you be? It was about two o'clock in the morning, and we were both completely awake. We just lay, in the same bed, not asleep. The mist was finally dissipating, and I could see the moon out of the window. We usually were awake at this time because of Ada and Steve wailing for one of us to feed them. The nights seemed agonising, but we were praying for them at the moment.  
We were silent.  
"Awake?" I asked, softly.  
"Mmm..." she replied.  
I sighed.   
I kissed her on the forehead.  
"I'm sorry..." I said.  
"What for? It wasn't your fault..."  
"I just feel so guilty..."   
"It's not your fault...None of this is your fault" she said, putting her arms around me.  
"I wish I could feel the same" I said, softly.  
As I looked out at the moon, I could only feel sadness, a protectiveness of my wife and sister and an unquenchable anger at Umbrella for taking my - our children from us.  
"I'll get them back...If it's the last thing I do...I swear I'll bring our children back"  
A new promise I felt. A new resolution.  
Watch out Umbrella Incorporated. Because Daddy's coming.   
  
Hidden and very, very dangerous  
  
It took us nearly five days to prepare everything. It took a further three days for Rebecca to be back in fighting condition. Even then she was still coughing every now and then. But I never forgot my promise. A promise that I did not forget at any moment in the proceedings.   
The plane to Prague was two hours late. I remember sitting uncomfortably in the airport terminal, the fuzzy announcements unleashing torrents of 'We regret to inform you...' and 'We apologise for any inconvenience...' and particularly unlucky airport attendants whose skill in foreign languages was somewhat lacking when dealing with irritated Russian visitors whose English was just as bad.   
It was not a warm building, and it being close to Christmas, there were some tacky plastic decorations hanging from the ceiling and a tree with a group of hopeful looking carol singers putting O Come all Ye Faithful through its paces standing in front of the tree. There was also a very large hat that already had a few notes in it.   
It was the season to be jolly, but Claire and I had very little to be jolly about.   
The plane did finally turn up, and we were hurried onboard like schoolchildren with strained looking air attendants welcoming us onboard. I sat down with Claire, Sherry sat with Rebecca just behind us, Chris sat with Jill and Barry sat on his own in front of Jill and Chris.   
Sherry leaned over the seat.  
"Are you two okay?" she asked, sheepishly.  
We both smiled.  
"We're okay, sweety - Absolutely fine" Claire said "But I hope you understand the delicacy of the situation"  
Sherry nodded.  
"I do Claire...Don't worry, we'll get them back..." she said, in a similar tone of voice Chris had used.  
She then turned to me. She was looking a little nervous.  
"Uh...Leon..."  
I put my hand on her cheek, I couldn't bear to see her like this.  
"Sherry...You're my sister...And I do care for you...I'll look after you, no matter what happens"  
"Me too" Claire added, vehemently.   
She smiled, but also blushed.  
  
The flight was mostly bad, mainly due to my own discomfort and to Claire's, but I held onto her, and my dreams were plagued with the sounds of screaming children and flesh hungry zombies moaning hungrily.  
When I woke, screaming silently, the plane was coming in to land. I squinted in the glaring lights of the passenger section of the plane, and as I looked out over Claire who was also rousing herself, I could see the dark blue of the early morning twilight zoom past us as the plan lowered itself down onto Central European soil, or tarmac depending on how you look at it.  
We touched down with ease, and we wasted no time in getting out of the plane to retrieve our luggage. It took ages for the luggage carousel to go round with our luggage, as if it was feeling apathetic.   
It took a further hour for us to get out of the terminal, and after a hectic twenty minutes worth of phone calling, we had a very large car for rent.  
In a dreamy couple of hours, I found myself lying on my back on a double bed absolutely exhausted. I had no energy at the moment, I was inexplicably tired.   
I stared, bleary eyed at the walls. It was a typically shabby apartment, nothing special or luxurious - We hadn't chosen the hotel, but the cab driver had said that this was the best hotel HE knew of in his broken English. Well, he would say that and charge extra for it. It wasn't horrible, it wasn't dirty or anything, but it just had that look about it of shabbiness - Worn carpets, wallpaper that obviously hadn't changed for years. The bed was good though. New sheets, nice looking covers - But the bathroom was a little suspect, and I will not say for which reasons.  
As I lay awake, Claire walked into the room.  
"Okay?" she asked, softly.  
"Tired...but okay" I said, smiling softly at her. She smiled back. We were coping well, considering.   
"Okay" she continued, hands on hips "We're going to see this contact of Chris's tomorrow...He might know what's going on and why"  
I nodded.   
"I don't trust those kinds of people" I said "But if it's Umbrella we're dealing with, you have to trust a lot of people you wouldn't normally trust if they paid you"   
"Well" Claire said, smirking "Chris would"  
I rolled my eyes.  
"Point taken"  
"He trusted Wesker"  
I nodded, admitting it.   
Chris had trusted Albert Wesker once, apparently. I had never met Albert Wesker, nor was I likely to, since he was apparently dead. At least that's what I was told. Wesker had betrayed Chris in the Arklay mansion, and afterwards had thought Wesker was dead. After that, Chris had still not learned. However, there was an element in him that made him trust people more than he really should.  
That was the past, not the present.  
"Come on" I said, her lying down beside me "Let's get some sleep"  
  
It was mid-afternoon by the time we woke up, and I did feel a lot better. Perhaps the sheer exhaustion had overcome my nightmares for a change. It was cold outside, and morning rain had laid down frost on nearly every flat surface in the capital. We enjoyed a quick lunch with the others, and decided to head for this contact of Chris's.   
So, we were out of the hotel within the hour, and following jerky directions from Chris as he walked ahead of us down the concrete sidewalk. We walked for twenty minutes, I stared at my feet as we walked, as if they were more interesting than knowing where I was going. I exhaled, and a cloud of steam plumed out in front of me, evaporating quickly as we stepped off the curb.  
"Hey" Chris nudged me "I think this is it"   
Our heads turned at the same time towards the building in front of us.   
It was...a picturesque building, which is perhaps not the best way to describe it, because picturesque is the way to describe rolling country landscapes or beautiful scenes of blue waves crashing against a huge, craggy cliff. It is certainly not the way you'd describe the leaking hulk of a building that stood in front of us. It was a cliff-face that had grown rooms. It was probably the only building in the world that still stood up which had passed its expiry date. It was on the corner of the street, and looked just like the kind of place you'd find a mysterious contact who'd 'defected' from a huge international company.  
"Looks appropriate" Jill muttered.  
"Gives me the creeps" Rebecca added.   
"Funny, I thought that the first rule of scary movies was not to enter creepy places" Sherry said.  
"Scary movies are also a good way of getting you in trouble" Claire added.  
I nodded.   
"I don't like the look of the place" I admitted to the rest of them.  
"Let's go in" Chris said, marching ahead.  
We all looked at each other.  
"Don't say a single word" Jill said, shaking her head.   
  
The interior of the enormous apartment building was in even worse condition than the outside. The tiny lobby had peeling plaster, shabby chairs, dust coated tables and an alarmingly wet looking staircase.  
We took the chance of going up the staircase, shoes squeaking as shoe-soles attempted to grip surfaces that defiantly tried to prevent any kind of shoe being able to climb up it. The look on Sherry's face was one of panic as she gripped the banister rail, and I found myself edging slowly up the stairs, even Jill and Claire were walking slowly. Barry too was taking things easy. The resulting effect was like something out of a Marx Brothers movie.  
Water dripped slowly from a crack in the ceiling, and onto the already saturated wooden stairs.   
"Yikes!" Sherry shrieked, as she slipped. I caught her left hand while Claire caught her right hand.  
"Careful" Claire said "These stairs are pretty dangerous"  
Sherry nodded in agreement.   
When we realised we had to scale possibly three floors of steps, there was an audible groan from absolutely everybody.   
It took us a further twenty minutes to scale the next few floors.   
The landing we were on had six apartment doors, all of which looked as if they hadn't had a lick of paint in a long time. The doors were numbered 18 to 24 in disintegrating gold lettering.   
Chris looked from the piece of paper in his hands to the doors.  
"Number Twenty-three"  
He walked up to the door, all of us behind him, and he rapped on the door with his knuckles. There was a long silence inside the room, then there was a padding sound, and the door opened slightly on a chain.  
I swallowed. I had done police training in New York, and anybody who opened their door on a chain had something to hide.   
An eye stared at us. It wasn't an old eye. It was hardly a very young eye, but it seemed to belong to somebody who hadn't seen a lot of the outdoors lately.   
"It's me, Chris Redfield with some friends" Chris said.  
The chain came off the hook, and the door opened wide.  
The man opposite us was probably in his forties, he had black stubble and he wore a shirt that looked as if he'd struggled to get it on and hadn't finished doing up all the buttons. His trousers weren't special either, having obviously not been washed in a very long time.  
"Come in" he said in a thick Russian accent, and allowed us to enter his small and shabby room. I tried not to look toward the bathroom as we entered.   
"Please, sit down" he said in perfect English, smiling "May I get you any drinks?"  
"Uh...No thanks" I said "I'm not in the mood"  
The general consensus was the same.  
The man shrugged, and sat down.  
"My name's Vladimir Meskavy, I worked at the Prague office of Umbrella before I was transferred to the lab at Finzustown, where I worked for nearly ten years"  
"So you know a lot about Umbrella's secret game?" Chris asked.  
"Certainly. I was working with them for years. They're the types who will never give up, and are extremely vengeful on those whom it finds have...what's the word...defected?"   
"What about their employees?"  
"I cannot tell you who they are from here...It is impossible. However..." he said, conspiratorially "In the lab in Finzustown there are computer files that exist which contain the appropriate files you need to work your way into Umbrella - How to access direct documents of their research, to find witnesses to help you, to know how to attack their bases with little or no resistance...It's everything in there"  
We all looked at each other. This was certainly good news. The fact it was in Finzustown gave us the opportunity to not only rescue Steve and Ada, but to go a step further toward Umbrella.   
"So...I suppose you want to know what's going on?"   
"What I want to know" I suddenly found myself saying, leaning forward "Is where our children are"  
The man eyed both Claire and I, and then smiled.  
"Ah" he said "The son of Birkin. You have my condolences my friend..."  
"That's all very well" Claire said, just as bitterly as I felt "But we want to know is where our children are, or didn't you hear us?"   
"Yes" the man said, as if we were children "I did hear you. The fact is you are going to have to hurry my friend if you want to save them. They are in the Umbrella lab probably as we speak"  
"Why do they want them?"  
The man eyed us again, in that 'You don't want to know but I've got to tell you anyway' tone.  
"Because they are the last of the Birkins. When Dr. William Birkin, your father, created the G-Virus, he used his own genetic makeup as a blueprint to lay the foundations of the virus on. Therefore, any offspring would be useful to Umbrella, because to obtain an organism that is 100% compatible with the virus would not only allow Umbrella to create the most powerful creature that walked this earth and possibly clone it using your children as prototypes"   
There was a retching sound from Rebecca, who looked as if she was about to be sick.  
"They're going to use them in experiments?" she asked, absolutely horrified.  
"No...They're not going to merely 'experiment' on such important specimens...They'll practice on other organisms to get the process right"  
I felt sick.   
"You must hurry" he told us, urgently "It is very important you get your children back. Not only for your sake, but for the sake of the world. God knows which direction Umbrella will turn in if they succeed in this"  
His eyes told me that he was telling me exactly how he felt.  
"Please..." he whispered "It is for these reasons that I have quit Umbrella, and they will probably be searching for me soon...So do this for me...I wish you luck"  
"Where is the lab?"  
"It's underground, it will take a while for you to find the access door...and since it has been nearly two years since I was last in the laboratory so things may have changed a little"   
"So...When do you think we ought to go?"  
"Now" the man said, coldly "Before it gets too late to do anything"  
We all stood up.  
  
We left the building about fifteen minutes later...Well, about thirty-five minutes if you consider the wet staircase.  
The city was now being drenched in an appropriately thick layer of freezing cold rain. I felt a few drops slide down my neck, and my skin tingled.  
Yes, it was cold. But it felt colder now I knew what Umbrella had in mind for Steve & Ada.  
"Let's see if we can rent a car or something" Chris said "I don't like the idea of WALKING all the way to Finzustown"  
"Where IS the place?" Rebecca asked.  
"About two hundred miles from here" Chris replied "It's nearly eighty miles from the nearest city"   
Jill whistled.  
"Quite a distance" she pointed out.  
"No distance too far, huh Leon?" Claire said, smiling.  
I turned to her, and smiled back.  
"Just point the direction" I said, kidding her on the forehead. I heard a groan.  
"If you two could save your kisses for later, we have a lot of travelling to do"  
"No change there then" Sherry sighed.  
Claire ruffled her hair.  
  
Déjà vu  
  
The rain finally petered out as Chris drove us down the motorway, taking us down the seemingly never-ending strip of tarmac with no problems, despite the wet road. Rain glistened on the surface as Chris steered the car off at a left turn, and then down another left turn, which Chris said was the last road. We were a little suspicious, since a large, thick and defiantly unbreakable barrier had been brought down across the entrance of the road, with something written in Czech on a sign leaning against it. There was also a sign in English which read DO NOT ENTER.   
"Strange" Chris said. He got out of the car, looked around it, and backed up the car before going off the road and crashing through the wooden fence at the side of the road.  
We'd also made a mental note that we hadn't seen any other cars for hours. The motorway had been almost completely deserted, and this one was also empty.   
I was sat in the front with while the others were squashed in the back, and I stared out of the window onto the rolling green fields as the last drops of rain sprayed over the land. The black clouds of night were gathering, and we just knew we'd be in the dark by the time we got there, whenever we would get there.   
I shifted in my seat, and looked out of the window as the windscreen wipers wiped off the film of rain that gathered slowly.   
"We haven't seen anybody for hours" I finally said "Do you think something's going on? I mean, they wouldn't put up barriers for no reason, would they?"  
"I'm a little suspicious myself" Claire admitted.  
In the rear view mirror I could see Jill looking out of the window.  
"I don't know about you" Jill suddenly said "But I got a strong sense of déjà vu"   
We all nodded.  
It was weird.  
The darkness was coming down at an alarming speed, and as we continued down the road, Chris had to turn on the lights of the car to illuminate our path ahead as we headed towards the town.   
It was probably half an hour after Jill had spoken when Chris exclaimed  
"WOAH!" and braked the car hard, sending us all jerking forwards on our seatbelts.  
I turned to Chris, irritably.  
"What the hell was that?!" I yelled "You'd probably have your license yanked for pulling a stunt like that"  
He just pointed out toward the headlight beams. As I looked, I could see something lying in the road. The thing was unmoving. As I looked harder I could see that it was a corpse. A human corpse. We all climbed out of the car. As the final few raindrops fell, we could see the rain glint on the skin of the deceased.   
"Looks like he's been dead for a while" Chris said.  
"I don't like this at all...when you find a corpse a few miles from a town where Umbrella has a lab - It's bound to have something to do with them" Jill added.  
I nodded, kneeling. The man had obviously been dead for quite a while. His face was pressed to the ground. I didn't want to see the other side.   
"What killed him?" I wondered out loud.  
"Pretty obvious, I would've thought" Chris said, and promptly pulled out his pistol and calmly put a bullet through the corpses head.   
Claire turned to him.  
"What the hell was that?! I think it's pretty obvious he's been dead for a while!!"  
"Listen sis" Chris snapped "That's precisely what I thought when I got into the mansion more than a year ago - And when you've been through hell and back, you begin to learn that nearly all corpses are bound to get up at some point"   
Jill sighed.  
"It doesn't matter now. What does matter is us getting Claire and Leon's children back, okay?"  
There was a long silence.  
"Right" Chris said "Let's roll into town"  
  
It wasn't long before the grime smeared sign in five different languages was illuminated by our headlights 'WELCOME TO FINZUSTOWN: POPULATION 80,000'  
Somehow I felt that those figures were not entirely accurate anymore.   
We drove into the outskirts of the town, small buildings showing up on all sides. There was what looked like a huge military roadblock ahead, and as I looked into the darkness, it seemed to stretch away for miles. Abandoned tanks and jeeps lay beside the sandbag and turret walls.  
"What the hell.." Chris muttered, beside me.   
Getting in wasn't a problem. It was only a matter of throwing aside a few sandbags, and then driving the car in. The place was ominously silent.  
It was like September 29th all over again - Me in my RPD uniform, driving into town, blissfully unaware of the situation. Stopping to see a corpse in the road. Getting out. Going to check it out. The moaning behind me. The gunfire. Seeing Claire for the first time.  
Talk about deja vu.  
Streetlights shot past us on both sides, until Chris slowed down and pulled into a small gas station to our left. Abandoned tankers were strewn across the ground. I didn't like it.   
The lights in the gas station were still on.  
"I'm going to get some gas - We might as well get it now" Chris said, and clambered out of the car, and toward the pumps.   
I sat uncomfortably. It was cold, even with the heater on in the car. I rubbed my hands to get some warmth back into my hands, and gently touched on the hilt of my magnum.  
You never know.  
I leaned back, and looked down at the radio. Perhaps some music?  
"Music anybody?" I asked, turning to the passengers in the back.   
They nodded.  
"Try Radio T.K - it's my favourite" Rebecca said.  
"No - OK Radio's much better!" Sherry snapped.  
Barry shook his head.  
"Has it occurred to either of you we're in the Czech republic and that none of those stations will be..." he trailed off as he realised that neither Rebecca or Sherry were listening.   
Claire turned to me as Rebecca and Sherry started to argue, and smiled, rolling her eyes.  
I smiled back, and turned to the tuner.   
As I jerked the tuning dial, nothing seemed to happen.  
I frowned, and studied the LCD display on the radio.  
There were numbers on it - But they were counting down?  
As the timer hit fifteen seconds, I worked out all the things that timer couldn't be. A stalactite of panic sliced through me.  
"EVERYBODY GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!" I yelled, startling Rebecca and Sherry who were still arguing.   
"Wh-?"  
"OUT OF THE CAR!!" I roared, Claire, Jill and I kicked open the doors and ran towards Chris, Sherry following at a brisk pace.  
Chris turned to us.  
"Is something-?"  
"RUN!!" I yelled.  
As if motivated by an invisible force, we all ran for it.   
Just as we were out of the range of the petrol station, the car exploded in a pretty orange fireball that lifted its mangled remains up into the night sky, the burning wreckage flying up and crashing on the abandoned tanker. As if things couldn't get any worse, the flaming wreckage ignited a leaking tanker, and the following chain reaction of eruptions exploded up into the sky, and as we ran we turned to hear further explosions that deafened the ears, when we finally stopped it was like the flames of hell - the fire roared across the area between two buildings between which the gas station had previously been.  
"How the hell did that happen?!" Chris yelled.  
"The car was rigged with a bomb - Probably fitted by an Umbrella agent who knew we would be coming here" I said, darkly.   
We looked at each other. No way out. It was just like old times.  
We turned toward the darkness, and walked slowly into it.  
  
We stood in the middle of the road, and saw nothing. There were boarded up shops, corpses and a nasty chill that froze the bones.  
As I looked toward a batch of shops that still appeared to be open, I saw the door open, and a panicky looking man with blood smeared on his shirt leapt out.   
He yelled something in Czech.  
"What?!" I yelled back.  
He realised we were English, and shouted before dashing back into the shop  
"Come! Get into this shop and quickly, they'll be coming very soon!!"  
I looked at Chris, who nodded.  
We all ran for it, and as we reached the shop, we heard familiar sounding groans behind us. As I turned, my mind was refilled with the fear and dread of my first encounter with the zombies of Raccoon City.  
Four zombies lurched toward us, all dressed in decomposing civvies clothing, and all of them looking bloodthirsty and horrible. Sherry shrieked, and stepped back as the moaning contingent of zombies lurched toward us, arms outstretched.  
The bloodcurdling moan of the zombie.  
We raised our firearms and fired, the one creature taking seven bullets from Claire's automatics, one taking a full on blow from the shotgun, a magnum bullet from Barry's weapon blowing open the face of the third, and the fourth taking a shot from my magnum and three bullets from Jill. Blood splattered into the ground wetly as the creatures fell dead to the floor.   
We heard further groans from somewhere out in the dark, and just as we were ready to fire again, the door was thrown open, and the man we'd seen before yelled  
"Get inside, now!"  
We did so, bundling in before the man slammed the door.  
It was a butchers shop, I realised. The man stood there with a shotgun like Chris's looking at us.  
"Who are you?" he asked us in good English but with a thick accent.  
"Just victims of a certain pharmaceuticals corporation named Umbrella" Chris said, simply.  
The shopowner snorted.  
"Umbrella? Pah! Things have been weird ever since they came here ten years ago"  
"Weird?" Rebecca asked.  
"Yeah" the man said "They spent months on this huge construction project downtown, and when they finally finished, there were rumours of people disappearing and not coming back - The owner of the hi-fi store's son disappeared five years ago, only to be found with both his feet bitten off in a steam not far from here"   
Jill and Claire looked at me. This was definitely a familiar story.  
"Things only became big recently though" the man continued "The army moved in about two weeks ago, sealing off all exits from the town! Would you believe it was a secret operation? Nobody in the country apart from a few people actually know about this place and its problem!"   
"Do you know anything about a T-Virus?" Chris asked.  
The shopkeeper scrutinized him.  
"No, I haven't - It doesn't matter at all now...I have lost my wife and daughter to those hideous creatures, and I intend to take as many of those things with me as possible"  
He loaded the gun.  
Then, there was a shattering sound behind him, and another crowd of zombies lurched through the glass, moaning plaintively. Weapons fired once again, but even as the bloody remains of the zombies splattered against the walls the shopkeeper was brought down to the ground, screaming. The scream was abruptly cut short as we fired into the waved of zombies that persisted in coming through the windows, like an unholy chorus of carol-singers.  
As the final zombie slumped to the ground twitching, we ceased fire.   
Jill looked down at the body of the shopkeeper.  
She shook her head sadly.   
"He's dead" she said.  
Chris turned to us  
"We're looking at the same kind of disaster that hit Raccoon City. If we take our walkie-talkies we should be able to keep in contact with each other...First off, do we have our walkie-talkies?"  
There was a chorus of nods.   
"Fully charged" Rebecca said.  
"I recommend we split up into two groups...I know it'll be dangerous, but it'll allow for more freedom of movement than seven people moving around at once"  
"Okay" Claire said "Do we have enough ammo?"  
"I think so" Chris said "I've got a couple of magnum clips for Leon, Barry's well equipped, Rebecca only needs Beretta clips which we have plenty of, and I think there may be an illegal weapons shop around here to get some more if we need some"   
Chris bent over, and took the last ammo from the shopkeeper, whispering a short prayer as he lifted the ammo from the dead body.   
"Okay" I said "Claire, Jill and Sherry can go with me, you guys go off together"  
"There are two side exits to this place" Rebecca pointed out "Let's take one each"  
And so it was agreed we would split up.   
"Be careful" Chris said to Claire "Don't get in any unnecessary danger"  
She smiled at him. It was that boyish, tomboy sort of smile she always had - It was hard to believe she was a mother, let alone a wife.  
I shook my head. Times sure change.  
"Jill, Leon - you guys watch it too" he looked long at Jill, who let off a faint smile.  
"Right" Chris said, it was clear he was in charge here "We keep in contact - Don't split up unless it's absolutely necessary"  
We all nodded.  
"Hey, Jill" Barry suddenly called.  
"What?"  
A small brown leathery pack flew across the room and landed in her open hands.  
I looked at it. It was a small collection of lock-picks.  
As I looked up, I saw him smile at her.  
A decent, friendly smile.  
"Never know when you need it" he said.   
"Thank you Barry" she replied.  
"Right" Chris said "Let's go"  
  
Ain't no friggin' tooth fairy  
  
The route the four of my group took us into a thin, grimy alley in the open air. We sniffed the damp air. It was a bitterly cold wind. It was a long alley, which seemed to break off at a right angle, which disappeared off to god knew where. The alley was disused, litter bins that had long since been ravaged by a mysterious predator were scattered over the wet concrete beneath our feet. The walls were covered in absurdly bright, badly painted graffiti. It was a dump. The town was far from a nice looking place.  
"Okay" Claire muttered "Shall we stay or shall we go?"  
"I'd plump for the latter" Jill said.  
I led, Claire walking beside me and Jill covering the rear with the worried looking Sherry clinging onto Claire.  
"There's something overly familiar about this" Jill suddenly said as we rounded the corner.  
"No kidding" I replied, listening intently for any trademark zombie groans in the darkness. For the place was far from well lit, and the only lamppost around illuminated yet more grimy walls that were the gaunt, foreboding and probably infested blocks of flats and shops.   
"I've been through this nightmare twice" Jill added "I do not want to have to go through it again"  
"So...What was the first time like?" Claire asked her as we advanced cautiously down the cold alley.  
"Bad. I lost several good friends in that nightmare mansion...and when Irons refused to believe us I just had to quit"  
"Chris said he was uh...harassing you"  
There was a long silence.  
"Okay, so I just feel embarrassed saying that Irons practically raped me in his office - Does that matter?"  
"Not at all" Claire said "so he-"  
"He tried to grab my ass. I nearly broke his jaw for that"  
Claire and I briefly exchanged a look. Yes, that was harassment but it was hardly what you'd call 'practical rape'. Claire and I decided not to comment. Perhaps Jill was just overly bitter...but of course we were all bitter toward Umbrella for committing their unspeakable acts against humanity.   
We turned the corner, only to be faced by a dead end. A huge brick wall stood in front of us, maybe twelve feet tall, probably bigger.  
"I don't believe this!" Claire exclaimed, savagely.  
I cursed under my breath. What a good start to our adventure.  
"Perhaps there's another way" Jill suggested, more mellow than before "One thing I learned in the mansion is that there's never a pointless area - Every room has a purpose"  
"I thought the mansion was designed by a freaked out lunatic called Spencer" Claire said.  
"Yeah, but he was smart - he may have been a few sticks short of a bundle, but he was a genius"  
I inspected the alley. It had leaflets plastered all over the wall, the dubious messages on them written in Czech. The walls were grimy, and water dripped from overhead drainpipes. A drop landed on my head, and judging from the sudden 'YIKES!' that came from Sherry, one had gone down the back of her neck.   
"Let's check the walls" Claire suggested.  
"Let's do that" I said, nodding.  
I ran my hands down the walls, feeling the damp paper underneath my hands disintegrating as I rubbed the walls. I slid my hands over the bricks, to try and find a lever, a switch-  
Suddenly, I found myself pitching forward as I pushed hard against what appeared to be a door, and I fell hard on my face on a green linoleum floor.  
"Hey! Leon found the secret entrance!" Jill said, grinning as I looked back.  
"Well done!" Claire said, grinning just as widely as Jill was.  
"How DID you do it?" Sherry added.   
Faced by three grinning women, I couldn't help but grin myself.  
"Well...At least I now know what linoleum tastes like" I joked, sending Sherry into hysterics. It was moments like that I treasured, no matter how depressing things may seem, whether or not you're surrounded by T-Virus infected creatures somebody always has to ruin the bad mood by being a comedian.   
I stood up, dusting myself off.  
"And I thought I was the master of unlocking" Jill laughed as I stood up, and rolled my eyes.  
"Gimme a break" I said, comically as we all stepped inside.  
The walls were painted clinically white, like a doctors surgery. As the door closed behind us, we were very aware the lights were very bright.  
"Woah" Sherry said, raising her hand to her eyes "Looks like somebody's going to have one hell of an electricity bill"  
The lights glared painfully, leaving what seemed like a glowing imprint of my pupils on the back of eyeballs.  
As we got used to the light, we stepped further inside. It was, indeed a hospital. Signs on the wall read 'DENTISTRY UNIT' and pointed away from us to the left, and another read 'INTENSIVE CARE' and lead away to our right.   
We became aware of a foul smell. It was a familiar smell. It was the rotting smell of a corpse, what road-kill would smell like if it had been left for weeks in state. We also became aware of the sound of slow, ponderous footsteps. We all turned toward the sound. What had presumably once been a surgeon was currently lurching down the corridor down the corridor toward us, its wrinkled grey skin and digested-looking flesh the characteristic zombie look. It wore a light blue surgeons uniform which had been stained by blood, and other mysterious and sickening looking juices than ran out of various open pores in its skin. As I looked at it, I could feel the warm fingers of revulsion slide down my throat. It was a chilling reminder of what had once been and what was now. The humanity this doctor had lost and never regained made me feel sick. The creature was drooling a sickly greenish-grey substance that nearly made me perform the aforementioned act of throwing-up. Flesh hungry and very unpleasant.  
I could feel myself sweat, as if I could barely bring myself to pull the trigger of my magnum that I raised defensively in front of me.   
'It's an enemy' I told myself 'It's a zombie. It's trying to kill you'   
As I looked at Claire I could see she was having the same moral dilemma. As I looked at Jill however, I could see her face darkening, her left arm was beginning to twitch. To my horror, she suddenly leapt forwards, and fired shot after shot into the creature. Blood squirted in fountain-like plumes from its jerking body as it took the bullets, the body dropping to the floor. As if that wasn't enough, Jill ran up to the creature and fired round after round into its brain, the gun jerking in her hands as she delivered each bullet into its head.  
Both Claire and I had to grab hold of both her arms, as she tried to tear herself away from us, growling like some kind of animal. It took that to release her from her painful frenzy.   
"Calm down, Jill...Calm down..." Claire said, soothingly.  
Jill's breathing softened, her facial muscles relaxing, and she breathed for a moment, before she fell against me and started to cry.   
I tried to pat her on the back, a little uneasy as Claire looked on.  
"It's okay, Jill...it's alright now..." I whispered. She looked up, eyes glistening with tears, her cheeks red.  
Then, she stood back against the wall, and slowly slid down it, the sounds of her dark blue shirt making soft rubbing noises as she folded up on herself, buried her head between her legs and started to sob again.  
Claire and I exchanged a look. Our eyes had a silent conversation. It was a further fifteen minutes before Jill stood up, wiping her tears away.   
"I...Don't know what happened...It was like somebody took control of my mind...I mean, I've killed zombies before...but it reminded me SO much of those zombies that killed my friends in the mansion...I just lost it..."   
"It's okay Jill" Sherry said helpfully "I mean, Claire and Leon also had to kill zombies to survive"  
"I had to destroy my father - I didn't know it at the time, but it still seems pretty bad when you look back on it" I added.  
She smiled at me, not happily but in a 'Thanks for the effort' kind of way.  
The visions came back to haunt me. Back in my RPD uniform, shooting away at the enormous blob that slid sickeningly toward me.   
My father. At that moment in time, I couldn't have hated anybody more. Now I wasn't so sure. Had he actually been evil? I don't know. Who cares? Nobody.   
"It's a kindness, though - surely? Relieving them to death is like granting them a wish" Claire said.  
We pondered this, but then dismissed our thoughts. No time for philosophy, we had some serious ass to kick.  
"Okay" I said "We all keep together, but Sherry..." he turned to her "...Always stay out of it. Don't intervene. I don't want you hurt"  
She nodded.  
"Right" I began, and looked around "Shall we check any of these rooms out?"  
"Perhaps they've got T-Virus cure info here" Jill said, suddenly brightening up "They did in Raccoon City hospital"  
Claire nodded.  
"Right. So which way?"  
We looked up at the signs.   
"I say we take a trip to the dentistry department" Claire suggested.   
"Sounds fine to me" Jill added.  
"Uh...okay" I said, a little nervously.  
Jill looked at me bemused, her mood completely changed for the better.   
"Scared of the dentists?" she asked me, stifling a giggle.  
I remembered my terrible trips down to the dentists when I was just a boy, screaming and pleading with my mom to not put me through the agony of having my teeth torn out by some lunatic with a wickedly sharp metal instrument.   
"I'm just...not too fond of them, that's all"  
Jill shook her head in bewilderment.  
"You can handle zombies, hunters and other Umbrella monsters that go bump in the night and you can't stand a man with a drill?"  
"Okay" I snapped "I hate dentists, are you happy now?"   
She stood back, hands outstretched.  
"Hey! I was only fooling"   
"Good" I said.  
"Let's just check it out" Claire interrupted before any kind of friction was allowed to develop.  
  
The dentist department was behind a pair of metal doors with a green paint finish, and it was revealed the doors inside were exactly the same colour. We walked through, boots clicking loudly on the hard tiles.   
To our left was one of the dentist operation rooms, with a dentist chair sitting there like a malevolent medieval torture machine. Claire pushed open the swing-door, and we stepped inside. It was probably the oddest smell that I have ever smelled. It was like a vicious war being waged between rotting flesh and disinfectant.   
The chair, on closer inspection, had blood on it - I touched the soft material. It was dry, so it must have been there awhile.   
Suddenly there was a low moan, as I looked to my right, I saw a zombie dressed in an off-white dentists uniform stagger toward me, in the early stages of his zombie form. And it was reaching for my throat. Sherry shrieked as I quickly pulled out my magnum and took a pot-shot at its head. The blow was luckily accurate; the bullet tore through its eye, spraying its disintegrating brain tissue up against the wall. The thing toppled on top of me, and I smelled it up close. It smelled like raw sewage, but much, much worse. In disgust I pushed it off me, and it fell to the floor, twitching in a scarlet pool of its own blood.  
"Ah Shit" I muttered as blood sprayed over my trousers.  
Claire and Jill had reacted as soon as they heard the moan, but I'd delivered the shot to its head just as they were pulling their own weapons out.  
"Hey!" Claire suddenly exclaimed, as a zombie that had been playing dead tried to grasp her boot and scrabbled to get a grip on it so it could get a mouthful of flesh. Claire brought her foot up and brought it down sharply on its skull. There was a sickening crack, but it hadn't removed the head completely. Another stomp smashed through the skull completely, and then all I could hear was the squelching of brain tissue.  
"Nice one" I said almost gleefully, grinning.  
"Thanks. I do my best"  
I put my arms around her, and we were just about to have 'a moment' when there was a blatantly artificial cough from Jill.  
"Ahem...I don't mean to interrupt two people who are trying to find their kids, but perhaps we could leave this until later" she said, emphasizing the word 'kids'.  
I nodded, she was right. I gently squeezed Claire and then we let go.   
"You're right" Claire said "We've got to find Steve and Ada"   
A strange sadness fell across her face, I too felt something inside me go limp.  
"Ah...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have put it like that" Jill apologized.   
"No need to apologise" I said.  
After a brief search of the room that yielded nothing of any interest whatsoever, we left the room to explore the hospital further.  
  
REBECCA  
Tikka to ride  
  
Hi! I'm Becky. Leon asked me to write this bit, to talk about what happened when we left the butchers shop. Well, about the same time the three of them found the entrance to the hospital (we guessed the time) we had discovered the back door into some kind of restaurant. Barry kicked the door down, the wooden door withstood a few kicks before it finally gave way.  
Barry raised up his Colt Python and entered cautiously, Chris stepped in behind him, and I went in last. I couldn't have been more scared. The problem is that I was recruited into S.T.A.R.S for a reason, and that reason was not to be a fighter. I'm a medic and a biochemist, I am not a soldier. Yeah, I can fire a gun, but I couldn't hit a barn door at fifty paces. I also have a disturbing lack of backbone, which shows when I'm under stress. So my sweating hands clenched the butt of the gun only just, the Beretta was gently shaking. I'd have thought I'd have got used to the fear by then. I'd have thought that zombies wouldn't scare me after the fiftieth time meeting one. But no. Fear stays, so do nightmares and zombies never change. As we stepped in, I whispered to Chris  
"Are you scared?"  
He turned to me.   
"I don't know about you but I'm pissing my pants"  
I was relieved to know he was as scared as I was. You could have twanged the atmosphere with a knife.   
We were in a storeroom. It was a large storeroom, with a door leading out in front of us. It was filled with what looked like freeze dried food boxes, each with a different food label on them, but from the same company. As I studied the labels, I could see each of the boxes had a faded stamp on it. My mind filled with anger as I recognised the familiar eight-sided vaguely fan shaped red and white symbol.  
"These are Umbrella boxes..." I said, softly.  
Chris and Barry bent down to study them.  
"Jesus, you're right..." Barry muttered "...But what would Umbrella be doing with freeze dried food?"  
As if Chris had had the same terrible thought as me, we looked at each other. He looked at me, eyes filled with the same horrible truth I'd realised.   
"Looks as if our old friends at Umbrella may have found an easier way of spreading the T & G viruses"  
"...and stamped their mark on the parcels to confirm their distribution" I finished, grimly.   
Chris stood up.  
"However, looks like the spread of the T-virus in this town has claimed most of the population"  
I looked around the storeroom and shivered. I suddenly realised how cold it was in this room. The walls were stainless steel, and I could see from here the frost built up on edges of the metal shelves.  
"Where are we, anyway?" I enquired to nobody in particular.  
"Well..." Barry read one of the labels after brushing a thin layer of ice off it "...This label has the destination address in English AND Czech so that the Umbrella office in the US could actually understand the status of the food distribution when informed by their contact at the packaging plant in Europe, or whatever - and it says HOTEL NOKOIA"  
"Doesn't sound Czech to me" Chris muttered, gazing around at the walls.  
"It isn't. It's a Russian owned restaurant with mostly American and Russian staff"  
"And how could you know that?" I asked, suspiciously.  
"There's a staff and management list on the wall in English - Why would it be in English if we're in the Czech Republic?"  
We all nodded, looking at the white placard on the wall that distinguished the manager as VLADIMIR RUCHEV. The catering staff was indeed mostly American, but there were a few French chefs there too, at least I thought so.   
"So, are we going to check out that next room?" Chris asked.  
Deciding that my skills were better used in detection as opposed to fighting, I thought I might hang around and check out the room.   
"I think I'll stay" I said "I'll check out more of these boxes"  
Chris raised an eyebrow  
"You sure?"  
"Yeah...I'm more useful if I can find some kinds of chemicals I recognise. If you need any help, just shout for me"  
Chris nodded.  
"Okay, we'll shout if we need any help"  
The two walked through the door, and with one last glance from Chris, they disappeared. I stood alone in the room, listening. I shuddered as I heard gunfire - But apart from the sounds of zombies, there were no calls for help.  
So I decided to keep to my plan and scout around the storeroom. Unfortunately, my search turned up fruitless. But I was desperate to prove myself again, as if I needed to redeem myself for not having done anything of any use so far.  
I found about twenty-five boxes, each with the familiar Umbrella logo stamped on them. None of them contained any kind of incriminating evidence...there weren't even any chemical stains. They were just empty boxes.   
I went through them methodically, wiping off the thin layer of ice on it, checking it for anything and then throwing it aside.  
Nothing. I hurled the last box to one side in a fit of annoyance, angry at the waste of effort.   
I was just about to turn to stand up, when I heard a dull click. Puzzled, I turned to the direction in which I'd thrown the box. Click? I walked over in the direction of the noise, and found its source. A door-handle. I looked the newly discovered door up and down. Why hadn't I spotted it before? Perhaps my detective skills weren't as good as I figured. I looked at the door handle thoughtfully.   
Chris and Barry expected me to be here. They would come back and expect me to be in the same room.  
But what if this room was important, and we missed it?   
I ran the idea through my head for a moment or two, and I decided to go for it. I put my hand on the handle, and pushed it down. It made a satisfying click, and I slowly pushed the metal door inwards. As I pushed inwards, I felt a warm feeling filter out from inside the door. Stepping inside, I immediately knew where I was.  
The kitchens.  
Well, it had to be, because the room was well equipped with enormous ovens, stainless steel cupboards, kitchen utensils hanging from the ceiling and other catering equipment that I couldn't begin to imagine using. As I walked past the wrought iron covers to the hobs that they obviously had cooked enormous meals on, it brought back unpleasant memories of years of Home Economics lessons until I'd dropped it in favour of Graphic design. I remember being the least able cook in the class. I was awful. Always the last finish, my culinary skills were absolutely laughable. My cheese soufflé had obtained a legendary status due to the fact it rose so high it could have been marked on an ordnance survey map as a hill.  
I took hold of an egg whisk from the rack, and briefly looked over it. I then dropped it, not wanting any more unpleasantness rise to the surface. It was a very clean kitchen, and didn't smell too bad...Apart from a sour odour that appeared to be emanating from a large walk-in freezer across the room. Suspicious that Umbrella may have stockpiled unwanted chemicals in the freezer to keep them in a state of preservation, I walked across the tiled floor, boots clicking in the silence, and I grasped the handle of the freezer.   
I pulled the door open, an icy mist curling round the edges of the door toward me...and then, to my surprise and horror what looked like a zombie that had been coated in ice lurched out of the fridge, moaning horribly. An involuntary yelp escaped my throat, and I raised my Beretta, desperate to kill the zombie before it got too close. But, just as I raised the Beretta, the fridge door closed on my hand. I screamed in pain as it crashed into my knuckles, the gun flying out of my hand and sliding across the floor. The zombie was practically on top of me, and I turned to blindly run. I skidded about six metres from the zombie, looking around. Where was my goddamned gun?!   
It wasn't there! Even as I scanned the floor to try and find my firearm, I heard the moaning of the zombie getting ever closer, and finding myself almost compelled to look at it.   
I stepped back as the zombie lurched towards me, sickening grey drool lined its dry grey lips as it staggered at me. I stepped back, my eyes scouring the floor for my weapon. I could see it, all of a sudden, its stubby barrel sticking out from underneath one of the gas cookers. However, I suddenly found myself backed into a corner, and I realised that my escape chances had just been narrowed down. To my left was a large freezer, and I suddenly realised 'Shit, you won't be able to get your gun, Becky'   
This was too true, as the decomposing creature in front was practically blocking off any possible escape routes.  
DAMN!  
I was cursing myself for both dropping my weapon and for allowing myself to be backed into the corner. The zombie wasn't far away. I scanned both to my left and to my right, suddenly realising that there was a knife rack on the counter to my right. A row of razor sharp gleaming knives hung there, and an idea came into my head.  
I took one. Knife-throwing wasn't my forte, and I hadn't practised it from my basic training a great deal either.  
So I took a careful aim, and threw the metal knife by its blade at the creature. I missed, maybe two feet above its head! I cursed my lousy aim, and tried again. I did hit it, but I only managed to nick its side, slicing off a small chunk as it flew past.   
-I'mgonnadieI'mgonnaideI'mgonnaDIE!!  
I tried again, this knife hawked into its neck, and I heard a crack as it chipped the bone of its neck. I felt temporary relief as it staggered back, but then my relief turned back to panic as it staggered forwards again.  
  
I looked at the rack, panic-stricken. The only knives left were bread knives, practically useless blades considering. The small implements used to peel fruit and vegetables were ridiculous alternatives. Then, my eyes fell upon a large thick meat cleaver. In just a few seconds I had it in my hands, testing it for weight. It was heavy, but it was a BIG knife. The zombie was almost on top of me, and just as it was trying to sink its rotting teeth into my throat, I brought the meat cleaver across in a heavy horizontal swing that took the blade straight into the rotting flesh of the zombie's neck. I could hear a sickening squishing sound as it cut deep into the fleshy neck, and then a horrible cracking as it tore through its upper spinal cord before completing the arc I had swung it in, crashing through more flesh and skin before I finally had the cleaver out of it again. The severed head rolled theatrically off its neck, rolling in a spray of blood as it hit the floor. The body, the messily cut throat flapping like a flag, fell on top of me heavily, and I managed to just step out of the way as it fell past me and onto the floor, dead.  
I exhaled a sigh of relief. As I looked down at it, the adrenaline backwash hit me, and I began to grin.   
Ha! Won't mess with Becky Chambers in a hurry, will you?   
I walked across the room, and picked up the gun, still immensely proud of myself.   
However, as I was enjoying the scent of my success, I failed to notice a cupboard on my right open, and before I knew it another zombie was on top of me. Quite how it had got in the cupboard was still a little beyond me, but I suddenly felt I was going to die. I just couldn't bring my gun up quick enough to deliver a blow to the creature that was trying to take a chunk out of my soft neck. I screamed out as it grabbed me, closing my eyes in the hope I wouldn't have to feel the teeth of the zombie as it bit into me. Suddenly, a loud shot rang out, and I opened my eyes. The zombie's head had exploded, bits of skull and flesh raining to the floor as I looked to see who had fired the fatal shot.  
I was overjoyed to see Chris standing by a door that I hadn't seen before, Barry also standing there with his smoking Colt.  
"You okay?" Chris asked.  
"I...uh...I think so" I said, embarrassed. I was feeling simultaneous fear, annoyance, shame and embarrassment - My big moment had meant to such to me, I had failed to notice my other attacker. I still had a long, long way to go.   
"What're you doing here? I thought you said you were checking out the kitchen!" Barry said, suspiciously.   
In annoyance, I shot back  
"Something like what Jill said to you when we were in the mansion, doesn't it Barry?!"  
Barry scowled at me.   
Chris held up his hands.  
"Please...We're supposed to be fighting 'alongside' each other, not 'with'"  
Barry and I scowled at each other.   
"Right" Chris said "We're in a hotel we know now, Barry and I interrupted a few uh...customers who were..." Chris considered his choice of words "...Enjoying a meal, and we took care of them"  
I nodded, knowing that they were the gunshots I heard.   
"Curry's the specialty this month" Barry said, smirking "At least it is now, if you look at what we did to them"   
"Ugh...That messy?" I asked, wincing.   
"Tikka to Ride, Becky" Chris grinned.  
  
The door they'd come through was an employee entrance, and it was through there we now went, finding our way into the lobby of the hotel, which had various zombie corpses strewn across the thick, plush carpet. It was a fancy hotel, a modern building which had been dolled up to look like a baroque palace. Unfortunately, it wasn't very tasteful, and looked rather tacky.   
"The only way is up" Barry muttered, as we all hiked up the grand staircase onto the first floor. The assorted groans of former room occupants filtered down the corridor towards us. I drew my Beretta, and fired, the gun jerking in my hands as I pulled the trigger - Chris and Barry also shooting beside me as our bullets hit the lurching undead.   
The first floor had twelve doors lining one landing, all of which appeared to be locked. We couldn't open them without the keys, and as we were longing for Jill's skills with her lockpick and considering stealing the keys to the rooms, we noticed that around the sharp corner was another set of rooms. The three rooms around the corner had doors open. At least if that's what you could call them, but if you define open as being splintered into lethal looking chunks of wood that were laying on the carpet in front of the large, ragged holes in the doorways - then this would be true. These doorways were all of these things.  
We decided to check the rooms. Two of them were empty, bar shards of broken glass on the floor where supposedly mutant crows or possibly even lickers had burst through to kill the occupants of the rooms. We also searched the wardrobes and desk drawers for any clues that might give us some indication as to where the Umbrella lab was - Although I, as well as Chris and Barry thought that we were really grasping at straws searching rooms in a hotel in the hope that one of the occupants may be an Umbrella employee. Strangely enough, the amount of time I had spent in church for most of my childhood appeared to have paid off, as the third room did turn out to belong to an Umbrella researcher. Of course, we didn't know this as soon as we stepped in the room. All we noticed was its ridiculously small size, a blood stained corpse lying on the floor, with what looked like tiny bite marks over the body. The man on the floor was long dead, an unpleasant smell filled the air as we crossed over to him. I wrinkled my nose at the smell as Chris bent down.  
"Looks like some birds pecked him to death" Chris said "I remember seeing Forest having these injuries when I found him dead in the Spencer estate"   
He suddenly went quiet, as the memories of the biggest mouth in the S.T.A.R.S Bravo team cam back to haunt us all. We were all fugitives now, it suddenly occurred to me. The whole structure of S.T.A.R.S was rigged by Umbrella, and none of us could bear living with the legacy of Albert Wesker, our treacherous captain who'd been in the pocket of White Umbrella, the bio-weapons division of Umbrella Inc. that didn't technically exist - we of course knew better.  
Leon and Claire, having been dragged into the conflict relatively quickly after the Raccoon disaster, had got together and were already married with two children whom we were all trying to find. It had taken them several months to do it, in fact their relationship had almost disintegrated before Claire disappeared to find her brother, both of them parting on less than friendly terms - But, somehow they'd found each other again.   
Anyway...  
We checked out the room. The cupboards contained five coat hangars, each with an almost identical looking grey suit on each of them. In his bedside table, Barry found, amongst assorted junk such as spearmint gum, sweet wrappers and the menu from the hotel's restaurant - a clip-on ID badge with a smiling face on it. The badge's owner declared him to be DR. EDWARD POE, holding the position Lesser Biologist in the White Umbrella division of Umbrella Incorporated.  
"So, this guy was a crony of Umbrella?" Chris asked "Pity he didn't leave much behind"  
I scanned his desk, and almost hidden under a thick layer of dust was what looked like a slim, oblong object. I picked it up and blew the dust off it. As the dust blew away, I noticed it was leather. It was a book. Judging from the purple leather and the gold-leaf pages, it looked horrendously expensive. I flicked through it. It appeared to be a full diary.   
I decided to read a few entries. I turned to one of the earlier entries, and read it.  
  
February 14th   
  
I've been in Finzustown a month, and I hate the place. It's deeply dull. Even duller are the regular trips I have to make to the hospital every day to check everything's going swimmingly. White Umbrella hardly makes the effort to keep us interested in our jobs. I checked out the new C1006's today, they're making good progress in growth and Plant 01 is growing pretty well. We're controlling it way better than those fools at the Spencer place controlled Plant 42 - However, the things does worry me. Its ability to drop spores around could hold dangers for us. But if I mention it to any of the lead scientists, I'm told to keep my mind on the job that I'm doing, because Plant 01's actual chemical growth is not up to me - I just take and analyse the samples.  
  
I gulped at the thought of another mutant plant. Damnit! We'd had enough trouble taking care of its monstrous cousin, Plant 42, Chris and I.   
With a dry mouth, I flicked a couple of pages forward to a later entry.  
  
March 16th   
  
I can't believe my wretched luck. I had to see Dr. Reynolds at the hospital today, and he's told me the S45's are screwing up again. How he keeps those things in that surgery without any patients knowing is beyond me. Checked the samples from Plant 01 again - It's getting ready to spread it's spores now - Let's just hope that it doesn't spread 'em when I'm around  
  
I could feel my heart pick up the pace as I moved to one of the later dates, and read again.  
  
October 29th   
  
I'm sweating. I'm not always sweating, but I am now. I've never felt so close to shitting my pants in my entire life. The T-Virus is loose in the city. Its infectious presence should have the entire city zombified within a couple of weeks, and half of the workers are already calling in sick - I wonder why. Damn! And Plant 01's growing again - Its spores are EVERYWHERE. In the corridors, it won't stop breeding. If I don't suffocate there, I intend to do it myself. White Umbrella have really screwed me.  
  
Wondering what was going on at the hospital, I read the final and most horrible entry in the diary.  
  
November 12th   
  
This is it. This is my last confession. I hear them beating at the windows, at the doors - Everywhere. I've never been so certain that I will die in my entire life. I wasn't completely aware of the evil Umbrella had been cooking up until I started to believe I could not escape, which was about three days ago. When it comes, my death will be a mercy. I don't know how I'm not infected. Maybe I spent too much time in my room to be infected - But if I am infected, I'll put a bullet through my brain. I couldn't imagine being a zombie. Hush! I hear them! They scratch the windows, screeching at me. The end has never been so close. If anybody finds this - Get to the hospital and stop this madness...My last request is that if I'm going down, Umbrella are going down with me!!   
  
I closed the book, this new revelation certainly new. The hospital?  
"Hey, Chris" I called "Look at this"  
Chris walked over, and looked at the book.  
"Don't want to state the obvious...but it's a book"  
"Yeah, but it's a diary"   
"Anything unusual in it?"  
"This could be stuck in Ripley's Believe-it-or-not it's so weird"   
Chris raised an eyebrow, and took the book tactfully from my fingers.   
He flicked through the pages.  
"What a freak" he muttered, and looked up at me "Where is the hospital?"  
"How should I know?" I pointed out.   
He nodded, and stuck the diary in one of his pockets.   
"So is this the point where we get to this hospital?" Barry asked, leaning casually against the bedside table.  
Our answer immediately came from the sound of smashing glass, and the horrible sounds of flapping wings backed up with a chorus of bloody cawing.   
We turned to each other.  
"Yes" Chris said, and we ran out, throwing off the feeling of razor sharp beaks trying to peck at flesh as we hammered down the main staircase, and into the lobby. As we turned to the wall, we saw a huge map pinned on the wall, obviously for tourists. We scanned the map for the hospital.  
"It's right there" Barry said, stabbing a thick finger at the plastic coated map. As we looked, we could see the indication of the hotel, only a building away.  
"Hey..." I said, peering at the map "Wouldn't you say that's the butcher's shop we first escaped in?"  
We looked at it. Hang on...  
We all came to the same horrible conclusion.  
"Leon, Claire, Jill and Sherry are in there!!" Chris cried, and dashed off toward the employee entrance to the kitchen, all of us only just keeping up. As I ran, I could feel a great sense of dread penetrate my entire being. I just hoped we weren't too late.  
  
  
LEON  
  
In Urgent need of Fungicide   
  
The hospital was very large, there was no doubting that. After maybe an hour of exploring, our surroundings were somewhat different. Starting off clean and shiny white, they rapidly degenerated into some twisted botanical nightmare. The corridors were full of huge, gorged green vines and runners that obscured most of the walls. Roots hung through the ceiling, and the living corridors were unsettling just to stand in them. In the walls, membrane bubbles held what appeared to be human bodies behind the misty green sticky surface. I looked up and down the walls. I could just tell that this was Umbrella's work.  
"What makes you think Umbrella have been here?" I asked, rhetorically.  
"I saw something a little like this...but it was smaller, so much smaller" Jill muttered.  
I turned to her.  
"What was it you saw?"  
Jill looked at me.  
"Chris may or may not have told you about Plant 42...Did he?"  
I shook my head.  
"Plant 42 was the result of a tropical houseplant being injected with a dose of the T-Virus. It got its name because of its position at Point 42 - In the mansion, that was a small Guardhouse across the courtyard from the main mansion. Anyway, the actual plant itself grew at an alarming rate, and after the T-Virus outbreak there, one of the decomposing researchers accidentally shattered a large water tank, containing growth chemicals, which flooded into the root chamber of Plant 42. Of course, the thing grew like hell - and it developed a taste for blood, which made conditions worse for the researchers. But did they kill it? No! It was an essential piece of research to them...Umbrella sacrificed countless human lives to keep their specimens alive..."  
I could see her knuckles go white as she clenched her fists, staring at the huge roots with pure hatred.  
"You said Plant 42 was smaller" Claire pointed out.  
"Yeah, this thing's roots and vines are huge...Plant 42 didn't look anything as big as this...this plant's got to cover hundreds of metres!"  
I swallowed, hard. I didn't like the idea of a monster plant. But of course, the worst was to come.   
I nodded, looking around in sickened fascination at the hideous organism that covered the walls.  
"What kind of twisted plant is this?" Claire asked, as she touched one of the pulsing roots. She grimaced "Ugh...It's moist and sticky"   
We continued through the corridor, carefully avoiding any of the horrible looking plant roots.   
"I'll never look at a houseplant the same way again" Sherry murmured as she stayed close to Claire and I.   
"The obvious thing to do is find the heart of the plant - If there's one place to kill it, it's there" I stated, as we crept around the corner into yet more organic corridors. As we turned the corner, I heard a sharp hiss. Turning round, I could see where the offending noise came from.   
We had found amongst other things, a weapons locker with the Umbrella stamp on it, containing three MP5 Assault Rifles and three clips of 50 bullets for each in a small storeroom, which confirmed that Umbrella had indeed had a stranglehold over the hospital, and whatever obscene experiments they had been conducting would not look good on their PR record. I shuddered as I thought of the patients who had been here - Unsuspectingly involved in experiments that they had no consent to be involved in. Umbrella would suffer for that.  
Anyway, it was these MP5s that we cocked as we watched the hissing, spitting snakes slide down the corridor.   
"Uh...What do we do?" Sherry asked, stepping back.  
I gave her a look.  
"What do you think?!"   
The first spray of bullets thudded into the creatures, small chunks of flesh exploding against the wall as the snakes reeled back from the impact of the bullets and in violent reptilian screams lay, spasming on the floor before they met they uttered their final death cries and lay still.  
I exhaled, looking at Claire and Jill's smoking guns, as well as my own.  
"Great, so we got snakes to contend with too? That just makes things even better..." Claire sighed, the obvious irritation at having to waste valuable ammo and the thought of having to fight off the possibility of poison bites showing in her voice.  
"I think we'd better find a map of the hospital" Jill pointed out "I think that finding the plant will be far more difficult than we thought, so knowing our way around would be helpful"  
I nodded.   
"Right" Claire said "The signs tell us that we're near the Admin block, so we might be able to find something relevant there"   
We all agreed, and walked on down the corridor. Stepping over the bodies of the dead snakes, we were unsuspecting of very little else apart from the predictable zombie hordes which we expected - but strangely enough, they never came. As we walked, Sherry was the first to notice something was wrong as the rest of us had guns trained on the walls in case any unwanted vines decided to try and get close to our legs.   
Sherry tapped me.  
"Uh...Leon?"  
"Mm?" I said, absent mindedly as I scanned the walls with my MP5.  
"Can you hear anything?"  
I listened hard. No, I couldn't hear anything...apart from a low throbbing, which seemed to be emanating from the linoleum floor. There was also another tiny sound. It was the sound of plaster splitting, the sounds of something being broken apart.   
"Yes..."  
"It sounds like a cracking sound, right?"  
"Uh huh..."  
"And it's coming from the floor?"  
It took a few moments for this to sink in, but when it did, I realised what the implications were. Claire realised them at the same time. We turned to look at each other, the same stricken look in her eyes as was in mine.  
"Oh sh-"  
As if on cue, the floor split open like an overripe plum, and a huge black crack shot towards us as if there was an earthquake erupting right beneath us. Cracks spread across the floor, and all at the same time, the floor collapsed, and we were sent down with it.   
I fell, suspended in the air before I hit the ground, hard.  
The crumbling noise stopped, and after a film of plaster dust landed on top of us, there was absolute silence.   
I lay sprawled on my back, staring up at the rugged, gaping hole in the floor about ten feet above, the roots that had broken it waving around like spectators in a football stadium. There was silence as I lay there, pain filtering through my back as I realised I was lying on a thin layer of broken plaster on a darkened floor. I winced, and looked around for the others. There was a loud groan, and as I climbed onto all fours I could see Claire rising from the ground, rubbing her head.  
"You okay?" I asked her.  
"Yeah...Nothing broken" she smiled "You?"  
"My back's killing me, but probably only a few bruises, nothing to worry about"  
Sherry sat up.  
"Sherry?" Claire and I asked in unison.  
"I'm okay..." she rubbed her back "...But my back hurts!"  
"That makes two of us"  
Then, Jill stood shakily to her feet.  
"My back..." she muttered.  
"That makes three of us" Sherry quipped, raising a slight smile from both Claire and I. Jill too rolled her eyes, smiling faintly.  
"So, where are we now?" I asked rhetorically, looking around in the dimness of the corridor. It was less like the previous corridors. True, there were some roots and thick vines running along its length, but it was a concrete corridor with a rough concrete floor. The corridor was not lit as brightly as the floor above, so to us it seemed almost dark. The strip lights that lined the ceiling lit a large bland space, with a T-Junction at the end. The only sounds came from the drip-drip sound of condensation running down the walls. Presumably the plant was somewhere around here. While the now familiar quiet pulsing was ever present, the sound was barely a background hum now.   
"Looks like the basement" Jill said "But since this is Umbrella we're talking here, it's going to be like a science facility down here"   
"...A facility that's been overrun by this plant, no doubt" Claire concluded.  
I nodded.  
"Okay, let's check this place out"  
We started to progress down the corridor much like we had before albeit with a few more bruises than before. As we stepped out into the T-Junction, there was a familiar hiss from the left, and we jumped back in surprise as the snakes slithered towards us. What surprised us even more was when the snakes stopped, reared back and snapped their heads at us in single swift motions. Globs of greenish gooey vomit flew through the air towards us, and we hurled ourselves to the sides as the projectiles hurtled down the corridor and smacked into the wall.   
"What the-?"  
We heard a strange acidic hissing, and we turned to the wall where the greenish spit had hit, we saw that a layer of foam was now covering the wall. As the foam dropped off, we saw the substance eroding away at the wall as if it was wet cardboard.   
Turning in a state of shock to the snakes, we saw them hiss and then spring through the air at us. Without even warning each other, we fired, half of the bullets flying off wide of the targets, but thankfully a few of the bullets did make contact, and they collapsed to the ground in their individual pools of blood.   
"Great, so they can spit too?" Jill threw up her hands "Well, that just makes things perfect!"  
We took the left passage where the spit had hit the walls, and progressed from there. The passage had started to slope slightly, and as we descended into the earth, I looked around at the steadily thickening foliage. Behind it I could see wall consoles, electricity still running but the consoles still unusable due to the plant life that saturated the walls and equipment.  
There was a large pair of double doors. On them was stamped 'LAB 01' and a fading Umbrella logo printed on the wall by its side.  
"Of course..." Claire muttered "...It would be Umbrella"  
I walked up to the door, and pushed on the push-handle. There was a click and they pushed open.  
"We're experts at getting in deep shit, aren't we?" I said, more cheerfully than I felt.  
Claire, Jill and Sherry just nodded. The lab we stepped into was small for Umbrella, but for a normal person, it was pretty big. It obviously had some kind of secret entrance from above - Perhaps from one of the offices that was permanently off limits. It was enormous and white, computers lined the walls and a super computer dominated the centre of the room. Its huge grey mass was ensnared in the foliage of the plant that was drawn off into another room.   
"This might be one of the labs we're looking for...But it doesn't seem like it" Claire muttered.  
I nodded at this. It was big, but it only seemed to be a small collection of rooms, and Umbrella labs were vast in size. Plus, it hadn't any security entrances, which gave me the impression this was only part of their hospital scam.   
"Too small" I replied.  
She hadn't been talking to me, but she turned to me and added  
"Right...and Umbrella usually have more than this in their devious little schemes"  
There was a horrible, rhythmic pulsing and squelching from the other room.  
"I think we found the thing"   
I looked around the room, and then toward the room where the plant roots led. I walked forward, leading the way as we strode across the metal floor, and toward the doors. I took a breath, released the safety catch on my assault rifle that I had put on a few minutes ago - and plunged in.   
It was a large, square room made entirely out of metal, with two doors leading in either direction. In the middle was...well, it was only a plant by the widest of definitions - it was a monster. A huge, ugly green mass that was shaped vaguely like a bulb, which was held up by about thirty odd thick roots that embedded themselves in the floor. It looked like a hideous mockery of all plant-life, a gluttonous evil looking Venus fly-trap. Thousands of vines extended from its huge pulsing mass and embedded themselves in cracked walls and the ceiling. Spare vines waved around like the tentacles of a squid, and occasional bursts of a greenish substance was released through unseen holes in its flesh, the liquid turning to steam as it hit the floor. It looked horrible. It was despicable, and it had to be destroyed.  
I suddenly felt more challenged than I had ever in my life before. The basics to fighting a plant generally involved fungicides, at least that's what Rebecca told me - After all she is the biochemist.   
The T & G Viruses had varying effects on different organisms. Humans and other animals that had been affected by the T-Virus had similar symptoms - Disintegrating body tissue, developing a brain-dead state of mind and an unquenchable hunger for flesh. The G-Virus? We only knew of its effect on humans, and I think that less said about the G-Monster the better.   
Yet there was one organism that was not affected by the T-Virus in the same way. According to Rebecca and her research into Umbrella's bio-chemical records, plants were different. It could accelerate plant growth, boost its strength and it could somehow develop its own basic yet morbid intelligence. The one thing it shared in common with the other effects of the T-Virus was the blood lust - But it could mutate the plants hideously. Plant 01, I had guessed, covered most of the hospital so it could absorb resources from everywhere - And it had completed its own task with sickening success. From what Jill told me, it seemed that the plant was close to impossible to kill   
Unless you knew where to get the appropriate chemicals to kill the damned thing. Which we didn't. A trickle of sweat ran down my face. It was the first time I had been completely stumped.   
Uh...   
I looked around, and suddenly hope filled me from the foot up. To our far right was a door none of us had noticed before. It was adult sized, but less obvious than the other doors. Above the door, a sign read 'PLANT CONTROL ACCESS'   
"Claire! Jill! Sherry! Through that door!" I cried, but just as we started to move, something happened that practically neutered my soul.   
I hadn't been watching the plant, but it had been watching us all right. The first I felt was a strange sensation on my leg, and before I knew what had happened it had wrapped two vines around my legs, and brought me to the ground with a horrible crunch. As I felt the pain in my side, I felt a horrible chafing on my cheek as the plant dragged me across the floor, and suddenly it jerked me upwards.  
The plant hauled me up so that I was dangling upside-down, suspended by its unrelentingly tight vines. Then, a very large and thick green vine snaked down, and wrapped itself around my torso as the vines attached to my legs released their grip, I was suddenly turned the right way up, and as I struggled to be released from its grip, I caught a sight of Claire. To my horror, I saw that she too had been captured, she was two feet to my right, and struggling with every ounce of energy she had in her body.  
I tried to reach out and free her, but a vine whipped out and held my arm fast. I tried to reach out with the other, but once again a vine snaked out and wrapped itself around my arm. I turned to see Claire, also held, helpless in the grip of the plant. I was powerless. I couldn't move, and I had the sure certainty that the plant would be using both of us as nutrients pretty soon.   
  
JILL  
  
Getting to the root of the Problem  
  
When I heard Leon's cry of surprise, I instinctively leapt back, dragging Sherry with me. Both of us watched in numb horror as Leon and Claire were hoisted into the air, and held, completely helpless to move.  
We were both standing, feet seemingly fused to the floor. I couldn't move, Sherry couldn't either. We just stood in horrified fascination as the plant took our friends prisoner.  
"Jill..." Leon croaked "Get out of here...While you can...Take Sherry and go..."  
"No!" I snapped back "If there's a solution, I can get you out"  
I grabbed Sherry's arm, and I dragged her, practically running to the door labelled 'PLANT ACCESS CONTROL' threw the door open (because it was ajar), pushed her in, and followed, slamming the door shut behind us.  
"No!!" Sherry cried, beating her hands on the door, tears streaming down her face. She may have been thirteen, but when her brother and technical aunt were in danger of dying, that would upset anybody.   
"Sherry! Please calm down..." I tried to comfort her, resting my hands on her shoulders.  
She turned to me, face red and angry.  
"That's easy for you to say! Your brother isn't in there, and neither is somebody who cared for me more than anybody else once upon a time"  
"Woah, Sherry...Just calm, and I think I can get them out of the situation they're in, and if you listen we might just save them" I had an unnatural ability to stay calm in situations. I felt fear and pain like everybody else, but in times of intense pressure...I was oddly calm.   
She wiped away a few tears   
"Okay" she whispered "What do we have to do?"  
  
Beyond the door was a short corridor, with metal steps that led upwards. Knowing that I was the only person who could protect Sherry at the moment, I kept my MP5 poised, safety catch off. As we crept down the corridor, I could feel the fear leaking into me. We'd been watertight to that kind of emotion so far, but it was beginning to get to me. Sweat was slowly beginning to trickle down my cheek. As we approached the door to the plant maintenance area, I could hear a faint moan. I checked what I had. Two clips, ten bullets left in this one. Enough for now, but in the long term....I tried not to think about what could or would happen if I ran out of bullets long before we rescued Leon and Claire.   
As one of the scientists lurched around the corner, I could see his white eyes - like egg whites, staring with the bloodlust of the undead. The Un-alive. The technically breathing. I slung it over my shoulder, and pulled out my Beretta. Taking careful aim, I nailed it straight through the head with my first shot, another blasted through its throat. Its persistence scared me, and I fired another three times, practically blindly. Two thudded into its chest, the other in its upper torso. It dropped over, and lay twitching in a pool of scarlet blood.   
I told Sherry to look at the wall as we stepped over the putrid body, and stepped into the small room. The room was very small, with only a few consoles and a table with a full lab-kit on its surface.   
As I wandered up to the table, I caught sight of a notepad, slightly crusty and stained with chemicals, and read the scribbled writing on the page.  
  
Standard procedure directs that should B.O.W P01 reach an uncontrollable size, containment is required. Since V-Jolt is now ineffective with Plant 01, a new, much more lethal chemical needs to be prepared to kill it - G-600.  
This is enhanced V-Jolt, it's stronger, faster and far more unpleasant. Care is required handling it. The G-600 can be used on any part of the plant's roots or bulb, but it will not work on the vines. After this, the chemical will kill off all the roots and the plant will shrivel up and die. However, if any members of the staff are 'captured' by the plant in an attempt to do this, the results will not be pleasant:  
  
STAGE 1  
  
The Absorption of energy and nutrients from its victims body by drawing it through their skin fro their absorbent vines.  
  
STAGE 2  
  
The drawing of blood from the body of the victim  
  
STAGE 3  
  
The consumption of the remains of the victim.  
  
This MUST be avoided at all costs.   
  
I looked down at the chemical instruction list that lay on the table beside the notebook. Eight chemicals were needed, and all of them were in a chemical store cupboard that was adjoined to the small lab we now stood in. Good, at least that was something that had gone right for us for once.   
Which to try first?  
I tried to think like a biochemist. Well, an unreactive liquid would be needed to start off...Water, right.  
There was a sink in the lab, so I located a suitable flask and filled it up as Sherry looked on.  
"Can I do something?" she asked.  
I looked at her, then the list.  
"Sure, in the chemical store cupboard just over there I want you to find me some...T5-1 and S2, they're in alphabetical order. And be careful with them. God knows what they can do"   
"Right" she nodded, and scurried into the next room to locate the chemicals. I waited for her to return, and about a minute later she returned with two beakers, one red, the other a pale blue.   
"Thanks" I said, and poured the red chemical in first - Slowly, but gently. The water clouded, and it was soon a faint red. Then, I stood back a little as I poured the other chemical - I didn't have any protective goggles, and if anything should explode I could kiss goodbye to my sight forever.   
Thankfully, nothing happened as I poured the blue chemical in, although the mixture did turn a slightly fluorescent purple.   
Next came two chemicals called A-22 and V-1 in order, so Sherry once again disappeared and once again came back with the two chemicals. Next came two more chemicals named R-0 and TG-1000, and Sherry did her errand again. The chemical underwent various colour changes, including yellow, pink and turquoise. When the final two chemicals came, I poured the first one in cautiously, and held my breath as I slowly poured the thick liquid of the final chemical ingredient into the mixture. The liquid dribbled into the liquid, and when I had finally finished pouring enough in, there was a faint puff of powder, and I turned away, Sherry following suit. As we turned back, we could see a faintly glowing green liquid, swirling gently in the flask. I picked it up gingerly, and peered at it.  
"Is that it?" Sherry asked, hopefully.  
"I think so"   
I searched the equipment shelf where we'd found the flask - After a minute or two I found a small disposable plastic bag with six disposable hypodermics in it. I took the small bag, and ripped it open. I sucked up the contents of the flask into each of the syringes, and gently wipe the ends of the needles with a cloth that lay on the draining board of the sink.   
I turned to Sherry.  
"You prepared to carry a few of these?"  
She nodded.  
"No problem"  
I gave her three, which she slipped into a small bun bag that hung off the side of her belt.   
I took the three I had and slipped them in my utility belt.   
"Right. Now to find a root"  
We walked out of the room, and were about to go back down toward the exit when a loud crash signified that the plant had busted through the wall, and the screech of metal and further crashing signified the destruction of the metal stairs.  
"Oh no!" Sherry exclaimed "How can we get back in?"  
I mentally cursed, and looked at my watch. Mixing up the mixture had taken twenty plus minutes, we had approximately forty minutes to kill the plant before it would start to draw blood from Leon and Claire.   
I turned, seeing another tunnel leading off.  
"This way" I instructed, and both of us ran down the corridor, turning a sharp right hand turn that led down a slight slope. There was a metal door at the end, which we gladly hurried through. Inside was another mass of corridors, with about three doors to each corridor.  
We stood there helplessly for five minutes, trying to work out what to do.   
"Is there a map or something?" Sherry asked.   
I checked the wall we stood against. There was...but it would still take an act of god to get the directions right.   
A further ten minutes we tried doors - All locked.   
It would have stayed that way. Had the plant not helped us out. With a tremendous crash, two of its vines thundered through the walls from the main chamber, bringing the walls crashing down in its wake.   
It may seem that I'm writing this in a hurry...but there wasn't anything really dramatic to build it up. No rumble, no crescendo, the wall just exploded outwards, and the vines snaked through the gaps, and their targets? Guess who. The monstrous plant was after blood, and it was going to try and get it from us. We dived for cover as it snaked after us. We both ran as yet more vines crashed through the walls to try and block off our escape routes. Ducking and weaving, we finally found our way through one of the newly created gaps in the wall, and hurled ourselves inside. Landing on rubble, we looked up to see the monstrous plant absorbing its energy from Leon and Claire like a gluttonous leech.  
I looked around the room, and saw what I wanted. A large, moist root leading away from the plant.   
"Sherry! Stay here!" I instructed, and before she could reply I took off like a sprinter, hurtling across the concrete floor and toward the root. Just before I could reach the thing,   
I suddenly heard a high pitched shriek behind me, and as I turned, I saw that Sherry had a vine wrapped tightly around her, and was being raised into the air. As I saw her, she fumbled with the syringes - and as if all of heaven and earth were against me, she dropped ALL THREE of them on the floor, where they smashed.   
Three syringes of G-600 wasted, and our chances of survival practically halved.   
I didn't have much time to consider it myself, since a vine grabbed me and I too was hoisted into the air.  
It raised me up in front of its bloated, sickening bulb - and it partially opened, lines and lines of razor sharp spines glistening with blood waiting for me.   
Oh Shit I thought, before it dragged me towards it. My left hand was free. In slow motion, and as if in a haze I withdrew the syringe. I propped my legs against the jaws of the creature to hold it back, and almost lazily I muttered  
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust - So die, Umbrella shit"  
And I stabbed the moist flesh to my left with as much strength as I could muster. The needle plunged straight into the moist green flesh, the whole thing disappearing completely into it.   
I injected the full syringe into it - Which was more than the recommended dosage, they said that even half a syringe could kill it. But I didn't care.  
Within seconds the response was immediate, the vines relaxed and uncoiled. The one that held me dropped me roughly to the floor, and I looked up as its skin hardened, cracked and turned to powder. Its vines drooped, roots shrivelled up and died - The monster plant was finally dead.  
I exhaled.  
I looked around, to see Sherry rubbing her head as if in a daze - And Claire and Leon lying, shaking on the floor. We both ran up to them.  
Both of them were pale, shivering and clutching themselves.   
"They look drained..." Sherry said softly.  
As I looked I could see that they were. Leon was white as a sheet, and looked as if he was half of what he had been.   
Claire was no better, she looked like she was having a crying fit, hugging herself with her pale arms.   
I tried to help Leon up at first, but he stood up shaking, and then collapsed pathetically on the floor. He was weak.  
I tried to help Claire up, but she fell over just like a new-born baby animal.   
"How are we gonna-?"  
"Let's get them to a room where they can rest"   
Sherry nodded.  
  
The entire operation took half an hour. It had taken us fifteen minutes to locate the medical room, and a further fifteen minutes for me to drag both of them into the room. Safe, at least for a while, Sherry and I collapsed, hoping for some respite...and hoping that our friends would wake up.  
  
  
LEON  
  
Ghosts from the Past  
  
Consciousness was an agonizing surprise. I was suddenly awake, aware of my cold, dripping body, aware of my shaking form.   
This came out as a cry of surprise, and this croaking cry also resulted in the return of my somewhat stilted and blurry sight.   
"Uhh...." Was all I could manage.  
It took me a full five minutes before I was able to relax with the help of Jill and Sherry standing by me, Jill trying to urge some water between my lips. I sipped, and fell back, still sweating.  
"Wh...where are we?" I said, softly.  
"In a medical room, not far from the plant" I heard Jill say.  
"And the plant...?"   
"Dead" she confirmed, still speaking softly.   
"What about Claire...?"  
I looked to my left, and right...and I saw her, lying beside me, pale as death.  
"Is she...?"  
"No, she's resting, like you should be. You've got a lot of energy to regain"  
I cradled her in my arms, touching her cold skin.   
"It's like she's dead"  
"She isn't, she's alive"  
At that moment, her eyes flickered open.   
"Le...on?"   
I smiled, relieved.  
"It's me, baby"  
She smiled back.  
"Where's Jill and Sherry?"  
"Over here" Sherry piped up.  
As if on cue, there was a bang.   
Jill spun round, gun raised at the offending sound that came from outside.   
I was awake for yet another moment, but soon my vision blurred and I was out like a light again.  
  
The events that followed that seemed kind of brief to me. A few hours of rest later, I was able to walk. The corridors seemed cramped, almost constantly changing, like something out of a visual illusion. I continued like this for a while, until I was suddenly aware of more space than before. It took me a few moments to realise that we'd stumbled into another room. It was a large room. It was a large, concrete room that was full of burnt out machinery. The damage looked, worryingly, as if it had been caused by a submachine gun, holes pocked most of the blackened hulks of equipment.   
"Hey..." Claire whispered, she was as weak as me "...Looks like somebody's been here before us"  
"I know" Jill replied "But who'd be able to survive? If the T-Virus is everywhere, who couldn't be infected"  
There was a crackle from my radio. Jill picked it up for me, and she pressed the talk button.  
"This is Jill...Is that you Chris?"  
"Yeah" came the crackling reply "I want to know where you are"  
"We're a few rooms on from Lab 01, where are you?"  
"IN Lab 01...Quite a nasty piece of work you've achieved back here"  
"Thanks..."  
"Okay, can you give me directions?"  
"As if! We had enough trouble finding our way here"  
There was no reply for a few seconds, and then Chris said  
"Okay, is there a sign on the wall?"  
We gazed up at the walls. Sure enough, stencilled on the wall was ANTICHAMBER C06.   
"Antichamber CO6" Jill said.  
"Right, we'll be along in just a few minutes, we're already underground - So we'll see you shortly"  
"Fine" Jill nodded.   
I was aware of footsteps. I was also aware of the audible click behind us.   
I froze.  
"Turn around slowly Leon" a sultry female voice announced.  
I began to sweat. The voice was eerily familiar, the husky tones taking me back to my first meeting with a certain American-Chinese lady looking for her boyfriend...  
I turned slowly.  
I saw a pair of khaki pants, with a small black military jacket being worn above a green T-Shirt. The Person who wore these clothes had a gun pointed at me. The woman?  
Ada Wong. It was unmistakeable, that thick, glossy black hair, the cool dark eyes and that skin tone...  
Back from the dead.   
"It's good to see you again Leon" she said, without a flicker of emotion.   
"You don't sound too pleased to see me" I replied, a little bitterly.   
"Well...Times change, and so do friends" she stated simply, tilting her head slightly "So...What have you been up to? Been crusading on against Umbrella with that bitch wife of yours?"  
"Don't EVER call Claire a BITCH!" I growled, suddenly very angry. I was almost disbelieving that this was the same Ada who'd changed so much more than a year ago. She'd supposedly died, confessing her love to me.  
"Oh, I'm SO sorry!" Ada snarled, sarcastically "You and that slut have been spreading around Europe like some kind of a plague, and you had children?"  
"Who are you?" Claire asked, also angry that she'd been referred to as both a 'slut' and 'bitch'  
"I'm Ada Wong...or hasn't your husband told you about me yet?"  
Claire looked disbelieving, and turned to me.  
"Ada?!"  
"That's her...Although she's changed...Once I thought she was capable of caring, now she's just an insufferable bitch"  
Ada smacked me round the head with the butt of the gun, dazing me slightly as I staggered back, to Claire who was unable to hold me up, so Jill stepped in to help.   
I looked up at her, feeling a combination of sadness, pity and anger. Not only was I distressed as to how she'd suddenly grown to hate me, but I was also feeling a great deal of pity towards her - I hadn't done anything after all, had I? I hadn't hurt her, she'd demanded that I leave her behind.  
"You haven't got anybody to back you up - What makes you think you can hold us hostage like this? Besides, there's three others coming - So I'd be making good your escape now" Claire warned her.  
Ada was unfazed. Instead, she laughed.  
"You don't seriously think I wouldn't come down here without some kind of backup, do you?"   
At this point, two black clad soldiers stepped out of the shadows by the door, raising their Automatic Rifles threateningly.   
"And there's more to come" she added "So I wouldn't bother trying anything. When your friends arrive then they can join our little party too"  
"So, you've sold out to Umbrella?" I said, bitterly.  
She raised an eyebrow.  
"Umbrella? Don't be stupid!"   
"So, who...?"  
"I don't think you need to know"  
"Okay...if you won't tell me who sent you then you can tell me why you're here, and don't give me any phoney cover stories this time"  
Ada glared at me.  
"Somehow I don't think you're in a position to give orders Leon, but if you must know I'm on another mission to steal Umbrella's most powerful virus"  
"The G Virus? Again?" I almost laughed.  
"Of course not the G-Virus!" she stormed "Umbrella have been working on this new virus for ages, and we're here to get some samples"  
"New Virus?" Jill asked, eyes narrowing.  
"Yes" Ada said, smirking "Their new virus; More powerful, quicker and gives the creature the ability to feel emotions...and its mutation capabilities are more intense than that of the G-Virus. Superior in every way"  
"What's its codename?" Claire asked, weakly.  
"Codename: GeVolution" Ada announced.  
I looked, worried at the others. The thought of this new GeVolution virus was not a pleasant one.  
"Anyway" she said "I hadn't actually counted on seeing any of you, especially Leon, so I'm a bit at loose ends as to what to do with you"  
"How about giving my children back." I demanded.   
She looked at me.  
"I didn't have anything to do with that - get your facts straight"  
"So how did you know about them?"  
"Umbrella have plans for them, Leon. They've got plans to use them as experimental GeVolution subjects. Since William Birkin had quite a large hand in creating the base for the GeVolution virus with the G-Virus, Umbrella were quite eager to use subjects who'd be...100% compatible, as it were"  
"You mean...you know too?" Claire asked, stunned.  
"Of course I know - Sorry about DADDY, Leon, seems his research just got carried away with him"  
"Ada" I growled "You're treading on thin ice with hot blades"  
"I don't think so" she said, simply.  
"Why are you like this?" I exclaimed "Why are you so aggressive? What have I done to earn myself a place in your bad books?"  
She stared at me, hard and cold.  
"You took her..." she whispered, pointing at Claire "Instead of me..."  
"You told me to leave you behind!" I replied.  
"Because I thought I was dying! I woke up a few minutes later to hear the self destruct sequence beginning to count down - So I ran, and got out of there. Thank god for company helicopters, I got out just as the lab blew up"  
I stared sat her, almost disbelieving.  
"You hate me...because I fell in love with Claire?"  
"No, I hate you because you nearly got me killed"  
"What about that 'just a woman who fell in love with you' shit?"  
"You're right there - It was shit. I was delusional, I thought it was the end"  
"So why did you say it?"  
She turned away from me at that point, refusing to say anything more.  
At that point, Chris, Rebecca and Barry walked into the room. I looked at their blank, sorrowful faces. Then I saw the three soldiers behind them, guns to their backs.   
Ada wasn't lying. We were caught - Hook, line and sinker.  
  
  
On Death Row  
  
I lay on the rock solid bed, trying desperately to sleep. I couldn't. It was two a.m., and it had been three days since we'd been captured. I'd never thought that I'd end up BEHIND bars as opposed to patrolling around in front of them.  
The three days had come and gone, and I'd felt increasingly guilty to Claire during the day - until I broke down in her arms, pleading for her forgiveness.  
She wanted to know what I had to apologies for, I said 'Ada'  
She wanted to know if I loved Ada, I said 'No - She's changed, there's nothing to love about her anymore'  
Then she wanted to know if I loved her - I said 'Oh god, yes - I love you, Claire'  
At this point, Claire broke down too - And I held her as we renewed our promise to find our children, whatever the cost.   
I hadn't given up hope on redeeming Ada though - While I no longer had any kind of loving feelings towards her, I at least wanted to see her as a friend.   
At the moment however, the hope of getting all of us free was gradually getting slimmer by hour.   
We'd been taken directly from Lab 01 onto a secret underground metro system belonging to Umbrella - and we were taken to the real labs. The beating heart of the city. However, the lab was just as infested as the city, and it took some effort for the soldiers to get us down to the prison level. We'd had all of our weapons removed, and stuck in various bags that three of the soldiers carried over one shoulder, and they'd even cuffed us up.   
So, bound by metal cuffs, we were thrown into cells, two for each cell, me and Claire in cell 1, Chris and Jill in cell 2 and Barry and Rebecca in cell 3. Sherry had been put in our cell, after she stubbornly refused to be on her own. Ada had let her have her way, so we took her into our cell.   
And here we now were, prisoners of Ada and her compatriots, and just waiting for our eventual deaths.   
It was on the third day that things changed, although not necessarily for the better.  
  
We sat, staring blankly at the walls, my arm around Claire, her arm around mine, and Claire's other arm around Sherry. We did nothing but stare at the blank concrete wall.  
"We're not going to make it, are we?" Sherry asked, softly.  
"Of course we are" Claire said, trying to sound cheerful "There's no reason why we can't"  
Sherry cradled her head in her hands.  
"You've always made me feel so comfortable, Claire. Even when we were back In Raccoon, I never felt happy when you went away - But I know that you're just trying to cheer me up, but I just know we're not going to make it through"  
"Sherry, I know we're going to make it..." I said, and winked at her "...hey, big brother knows best"  
She smiled. In all the chaos, I'd completely forgotten Sherry was my sister, in status although not in name.  
"You're the best big brother a girl could have, Leon...And with Claire being my sister in-law, that makes us a pretty good family huh?"  
While it sounds like a fairly saccharine conversation, I was relieved for things to be like that - I just prayed to god that nobody would say 'That's what friends are for'   
"I'd say so" Claire said, smiling.  
There was a crackle from outside, and it turned out to be Ada with a walkie-talkie.  
I heard her talking hurriedly into the small machine, which buzzed back at her every now and then.  
"Look Tobias, I'm really loosing my patience with your men...I couldn't care less if they are the best, they're still no closer to finding the samples than ever...I understand you've lost three men trying to get through the labs, and that the Neo-Genesis is indeed a problem for us, but all we need to do is grab a few samples and go...The prisoners? I don't know, just leave them here I suppose...yeah, we'll blow the lab and go...No, the Neo-Genesis has not been revived...let's just hope that freak Escodan doesn't try anything...Yes, Escodan lost his marbles a long time ago, questionable ethics and all that shit...Good, I'm just going to talk to the prisoners now"  
I heard her click off the radio, and after a whirr, and a beep, the door clicked open and she stepped in.  
"What's the Neo-Genesis and who's Escodan?" I asked, immediately.  
"Didn't your mother ever teach you anything about what happens to nosy people?"  
"Nah" I shook my head.  
"Since you ask, the Neo-Genesis is the prototype GeVolution organism that has been classified in the Tyrant series. However, due to its erratic mood changes and its obsessive incentive to kill, it was sedated in the lab where it was created and then kept in a state of cryogenic freeze for revival when the emotional glands could be controlled."  
"And Escodan?" Claire asked, still stony towards Ada.  
Ada glared at her icily.  
"An Umbrella scientist who went crazy - He's been in these labs for god knows how long, although quite where we don't know. He's smart, but just crazy enough to be very, very dangerous. He's been with Umbrella for ten years, worked at various posts with the Chicago and Raccoon branches before ending up in Finzustown. He knows this place upside-down and inside out, screw by screw and where every airshaft leads. Unfortunately, being a senior scientist, he also has all the access codes for every part of the facility. We're trying to hunt him down right now."  
"And you can't find him?" Claire said, almost bemused.  
Ada glowered at Claire.  
"We CAN find him, but we haven't yet"   
She shifted positions, gently tapping her weapon on her thigh.  
"I came here to tell you we've probably got just a few hours - And then we'll go."  
"Although 'we' doesn't include us naturally." I said.  
"Right. You're enough trouble to us without having you guys trying to go around acting the conquering heroes"   
"What's the problem Ada?" I suddenly said "Why do you hate me?"  
All she did was stare at me.  
She walked over to me, and continued to stare. Then, she suddenly slapped me so hard it made my eyeballs rattle.  
It hurt. It hurt more than anything I'd ever felt before. But it wasn't physical pain.   
She then stalked out, slamming the door behind her.  
"What a bitch!!" Claire exclaimed, looking at my cheek for any signs of bleeding. She'd hit hard, and she had had fairly long nails "She's going to be looking for some serious trouble if she tries that on you again!"   
Sherry looked at me, and smiled.  
The smile surprised me. I didn't understand what kind of a smile it was at first. It wasn't a smile of happiness, a smile of hope nor was it a forced smile.   
"What's up with you?" I asked, suspiciously.  
She just grinned, and held out her hand.  
"Who says I don't do bad stuff sometimes?" she said.  
We both stared into her hand. In it, lay a key-card. Ada's key-card. It was the card that unlocked the cells and most of the rooms on this level.   
"Would you credit it...?" Claire said, bemusedly shaking her head "Little miss innocent becomes little miss filcher!"  
"I sort of sneaked up behind her and took it out of her pocket when she slapped Leon"   
I could see her knuckles go white. It was touching that she felt protective of me, of ME for gods sake!!   
But emotion wasn't the thing to feel right now. All we could do now was escape.   
"Let's get out of here" Claire said, and we all stood up. We went to the door, and Claire tried the card in the card-reader beside the door. It beeped, and to our relief it swung outwards when we pushed it.   
We set to work freeing Chris and Jill, and Rebecca and Barry.   
"Good work" Chris said afterwards "Now we get out of here"  
"Wait a second, I thought we came here to get our kids!" Claire exclaimed.   
Chris slapped his forehead.  
"Ah! Sorry, I completely forgot!"  
"Right...Ada would know where they are, but where is she?" I asked.  
"I reckon..." Barry said "...That before any decisions are made, we should get our weapons back. If they've lost some men, it obviously means that Umbrella creatures are loose in the facility"  
"True" Chris said "First we'd better find the weapons locker where they're kept"  
"...And after that, we should split up into groups" Jill said "I know it sounds crazy, but if we all walk together in this place, we're going to be easier targets for those creatures trying to kill us"  
"Okay" I said "Let's go for three groups. I'd...prefer to go with my wife"  
Claire looked at me.  
"Do you really want to?"  
"Of course" I whispered "I want to"  
She smiled, and squeezed my hand.   
  
The weapons locker was in a small, unguarded security room on the floor below. It seemed suspicious that they were unguarded, far too convenient.   
"Well..." Chris said, loading his shotgun "...Shall we split up?"  
"Waitasec" Rebecca suddenly said, holstering her Beretta "Who's going to look after Sherry?"  
We suddenly realised that it would be impossible to leave her anywhere - The whole place was too dangerous to leave a young girl in all on her own.   
"She can go with us" I said "We can take care of it"  
The others looked at us.  
"You sure about this?" Jill asked.  
"Absolutely" Claire replied.  
"Okay" she said "Let's split up. We'll take each of the three main lab areas, shifting levels if we need to - If all else fails, we keep in contact and get a map of the lab to try and find the exit. Since we all know Umbrella's style, should anything happen then the self-destruct sequence will be activated, giving us ten minutes to get to the safe range, and a further five minutes to get out before it blows - Okay?"  
We all nodded.  
"Okay" she said "Let's go"  
  
  
Level 5 - Men's shoes, cosmetics and giant scorpions  
  
The three of us stood in the lift as it shot downwards, watching the numbers gradually increase to 5. Claire and I adjusted our MP5's and checked our handguns, before giving Sherry an encouraging pat on the shoulder. When it hit five, we bundled out into what appeared to be a computer area - And predictably enough, zombies lurched around the room, moaning plaintively. The moan of lost souls. The decomposing forms caught our scent, and staggered towards us as if drunk and suffering from severe muscle problems. Which they were. Their flesh practically hung off their bones, their lab coats ragged and bloody.  
Claire and I looked at each other, and nodded.  
Gunfire sprouted from our MP5's, and thudded into the advancing zombies. Blood splattered into consoles and the metal floor as zombie after zombie fell on the floor in a pool of its own scarlet blood, bullet holes lining their torsos and heads.   
When the last one slumped to the floor, his moans disappearing along with the clatter of gunfire, there was an awkward silence. As if we were waiting for a round of applause.   
"Wait for it" I said "There's going to be something else"  
We waited. There was a tic-tic sound repeating at a worrying speed from across the room. We heard the sound stop - and then the metal door sealing off the computer room from the rest of the facility dented inwards savagely, and despite the fact we were eight feet from the door, we instinctively stepped back.   
It dented again, and again, each time denting further inwards, until the door finally tore off its hinges.   
In the doorway was a scorpion. At least it looked like a scorpion - No normal scorpions were four feet long with a poison sting bigger than a mans fist, and no normal scorpions looked as horrible as these did. It was black with orange lining their joints - Which didn't make it any less appeasing to the eye.   
It clicked forward, and before anything needed to be said we were already firing into it, Claire's MP5 clicking empty after about five seconds, and she fumbled for another clip. We didn't have that much in the way of ammo - We needed to be more conservative with our present store, or we'd have to find some more to stock up with.  
The bullets thudded into the thing, it took a good few shots through its hardened carapace before it finally collapsed to the floor, twitching and spasming for a few seconds before it turned on its back, and died in a pool of its own greenish blood.   
"A scorpion..." Claire breathed "...That means we must be on the level where they create these things - I don't suppose for a second something like that could operate an elevator"  
Sherry and I nodded.  
"We're probably on the level where they make these freaks" I said, and looked up at the wall. On it were scientific charts, the centrefold from some old issue of playboy, and a map of the level.   
Clearly indicated down the corridor was 'CULTIVATION ROOM' and 'EXPERIMENTAL CHAMBER' that was accessible through the Cultivation Room.  
"Experimental chamber?" Claire breathed "...Do you think that could mean...?   
We both thought it at the same time.   
We stepped through the broken doorway, into a corridor populated by two more scorpions, both looking fiercely territorial - and both of them seeing us as trespassers.  
We wasted yet more ammo on the two crustaceans, and searched for the door to the cultivation room. When we found it, just around the corner, we were faced with a two-foot thick airtight door with a numerical lock on it. The lock was on - but as we had found out in Raccoon, trying to get through a code-sealed door was absolutely pointless unless you knew the access code.   
We explored the level a little further. There was a security office, which we took temporary refuge in and gained a few extra clips for the MP5's and a few extra clips for Claire's Beretta's and my Magnum.  
The room was small, no bigger than a bathroom and fairly sterile looking. Gun metal grey stared back at us from the walls, apart from the wall in which the door was set, where a window with a blind was.  
The window had been broken, and fairly recently. The glass that was spread across the desk was coated in wet blood, blood that dripped on the floor. We didn't know what had caused that, and really didn't want to know either, although it definitely didn't seem to be the work of a scorpion.  
On the desk were some littered papers, and a small diary. It belonged to the head of security, Ed Yates. The Umbrella staff were obviously in the habit of keeping diaries, I thought as I picked it up and thumbed through it to the latest entries.   
  
December 1st   
Christmas cheer? Don't make me laugh! My life's over, I know now. I've held out as long as possible, but nobody lives forever, none the least me. I got the job as head security officer for the Finzustown branch of the Umbrella research group nearly eight months ago - And I've seriously screwed it up. I'm awake every moment of every day, my trusty Remington 120 by my side, ready to pick off any of the S4's or A20 Scorpio's that try to get in, or any of the zombies. Poor Scott, I shot the guy today - I had to, he even asked me to - Telling me to kill him before it was too late.   
So...the T-Virus was released. By accident, so they tell me. It was actually the result of an infiltration op by those idiots from Bio-Tech, spilling T-Virus everywhere. Naturally it got above the surface, and of course the city's now a ghost town - Haunted by shuffling hordes of undead. And guess what? The military moved in and surrounded the town, and nobody could get out. I don't know what they got planned for this city...but I think I got a sneaking suspicion they're going to do to Finzustown what they did to Raccoon City. For anybody out there who wants to blow this place apart - They're more than welcome to it. My username is Yates, password: anewday  
So this is goodbye...  
  
"So...is that it?" Claire said, softly.   
"Yeah...you got to feel sorry for guys pulled into this whole shebang...Security guards, night watchmen etcetera. What did they do to deserve any of this?"  
"Nothing" Claire said, hand on my shoulder "That's why we're here"  
"Hey" Sherry said, pointing at the book "There's a piece of paper hanging out of it"  
I looked. A tiny scrap of paper torn from a printout with the words 'IN CASE OF CREATURE OUTBREAK, USE KEYCODE; 0-1-4-5-9-0-0-6  
I read it twice, before I turned to Claire and Sherry, smiling.  
"Look's like our friend the security guard's left us something in his will"  
  
Claire tapped each of the number keys in order, until the glowing red light on the number pad turned green with a beep.   
We all pushed on the huge door, which swung inwards after a little effort.  
As we stepped in, we were aware of the temperature change. It was much cooler, almost icy cold. Steam rolled out of the door as we stepped inside. Sherry shivered.  
"It's cold" she whispered.  
She looked up.  
"Oh my god..." she said, softly.  
We were all looking forwards. The room was like a little labyrinth in glass tubes and machinery - We counted about thirty tubes, ten of which were empty - But the others...   
There must have been fifteen hunters, each floating in stasis sleep.   
They were by definition 'Hunters'. But seven of them, while obtaining the same claws and hunched back look, had webbed feet, and were also a faint blue colour. There was a distinct feel that if the hunters we were used to had some kind of frog DNA in their background, these creatures had fish DNA back there somewhere.  
Some of the others had assorted specimens of lickers, all of whom were inactive.   
We decided it would be best if we left it that way as we walked through the aisles of sleeping monsters.   
"Okay" I said "As long as we obey the three main rules of horror movies, we should be okay"  
"And they are...?"  
"One, never touch any buttons in a room full of sleeping mutants"  
"Two, never say that you're safe" Sherry continued  
"And finally - Don't say 'I'll be back' because you won't" Claire finished.  
Claire and I suddenly noticed something and turned to Sherry.  
"How do you know any of that kind of stuff?"  
"I know about horror movies - I am mature enough to watch that stuff, even though I don't mostly"  
"Night of the Living Dead was good" Claire remarked.  
"Ah, don't give me that - Dawn of the dead was better! Exploding heads and blood courtesy of Tom Savini, Special-effects supervisor"  
We both stared at her.  
"Is there something about you we should know?" I asked, comically.   
"Not really"  
"Well, if we got to decide on the best zombie movie, I say that Evil Dead's the best" I said.  
"People can't decide whether or not it's better than the sequel, you know"   
We explored the room, checking out the glass tanks.   
"....Anybody see The Blair Witch project?" Sherry asked, as we looked around at the sleeping creatures.  
"Oh that was utter crap, start to finish!" Claire remarked.  
"No, not necessarily - It was a nightmare movie, a psychological thing"  
"I guess it worked on that level" I said, checking out the console.  
"What about Event Horizon?" Claire said.   
We all looked at each other.  
"NO" we said in unison, and laughed.  
We stepped into the other room, our horror movie debate still hanging in the air.  
We stopped, stock-still and stared at the fifty glass tanks, each with a fully grown sleeping scorpion in them.   
The wall tubes along the side-stored snakes of varying sizes, and some 'Poison Ivy' plants were also kept in their own tubes. We didn't even want to go there.  
"There's the door to the experimental room" Claire said, pointing to a thick metal door with the words 'EXPERIMENTAL CHAMBER' printed on them in red, with a large red biohazard symbol also adorning the doorway. We stepped through without a thought, and in a moment that I will remember forever, I heard crying.   
We all turned left, and sure enough, lying in a cloth on a mattress that was stood on a table along with some other science periphery - Was Steve & Ada. Our children.  
I could see Claire was about to cry, so we ran up to them and picked them up.  
Both had been quite distressed, but they were suddenly calm.  
Claire and I held our children for long minutes, whispering kind words in their ears, feeling their warmth against us, even in the chill of the room.  
Things seemed perfect. Even in the semi-apocalyptic state we were in, the devastated down, the haywire lab, the new hunters - Everything seemed absolutely wonderful.  
But it didn't last for long.  
"Hello" a voice with a slight South-American accent said. "I guess that the saying 'Good things come to those who wait' is true after all. Turn around, and don't touch your weapons"  
We turned. A thirty something scientist stood there, about Claire's height. His lab coat was a little torn, and only at the bottom was it slightly bloodstained, but he was definitively alive.   
He spoke coolly and calmly, but his face said otherwise. If cold, pure angry madness had a face, Escodan would be the one that wore it. It was Escodan, no question.   
"Mum and dad have come to get their babies back, huh?" his voice had a delicate edge to it that was mildly menacing and completely unsettling.   
"Yeah" Claire said "You going to stop us?"   
"Why, of course I am!" Escodan said, eye twitching slightly which worried me further "My...experiments are as important to me as anything else...Since I don't HAVE anything else, I don't understand why you won't just let me have my way just this once"  
"They're our kids, you screw up!!" I shouted at him.  
He waved the magnum in his hand, for that was the gun he held, and pointed it at me.  
"Don't tempt me"   
He stood there, contemplatively.  
"I suppose you want me to tell you 'the plot'"  
"Actually I would like to know"  
He chuckled, in a low, growling way.  
"If you want to know, I work for Umbrella - As a matter of fact, I'm the head of the Finzustown research team who worked on the Neo-Genesis. My creation"  
"That was YOUR idea?!" Sherry asked, astonished.  
He nodded at her.  
"Indeed little girl, indeed. My creation, my progeny"  
"Then why do you need our children for that...thing?" Claire spat.  
Escodan glared at her.  
"I will ignore the way you describe my child as a 'thing' - It is greater than man, every instinct and emotion is honed to perfection - All I need is to use the minds of children to introduce that...hormone that keeps them calm...Once this has been achieved, I will be able to introduce my child to the rest of the world"  
"Child?! You are sick!!" I rasped.  
"The rest as they say is simple..." he continued "...Umbrella refused me funding when my Neo-Genesis attacked and killed some Umbrella employees...I survived, but I kept my child under careful observation"  
"And the T-Virus escaped?"  
"Good grief no, I released it myself to prevent Umbrella and those Bio-Tech fools from coming in and destroying my beautiful child"  
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Claire yelled "ARE YOU A TOTAL FREAK?!"  
"If you are doubting as to my child's beauty, then I shall show you Neo-Genesis in the flesh"  
He made us walk in front as he guided us towards another lab entrance, both Claire and I still carrying our children, who had somehow fallen asleep.  
When Sherry slowed, he jabbed her with the barrel of the gun.  
"Walk" he said, coldly.  
We walked on, through the doors into another part of the experimental chamber into a similar sized room with only one cryo-tube inside.   
We looked up in horror at what was inside.  
"BEHOLD!!" Escodan bellowed, insanity saturating every word "THE ULTIMATE BIOLOGICAL WEAPON!!! THE NEO-GENESIS!!"  
  
Mr. Genesis, please take your bow  
  
The Neo-genesis was huge. It was twelve feet tall and took on a similar form to the Tyrant - Except it was bigger, so much bigger, and not just in height.  
Its muscles were like sacks of melons, it had a thick greyish-black hide that shone slightly, indicating hardness and four arms, two of which were like enormous spiked prongs, the other two like normal arms, except that normal was not the word to describe the mighty ten-inch clawed creature in front of us. It had enormous muscular legs too, each of these were practically bulging with muscles, and the feet were clawed too. Its eyes were closed, in a state of cryo-sleep.  
"Jeez..." I heard Claire mutter.  
"It's...huge..." Sherry whispered.  
"See?!" Escodan whirled round and addressed us, now in full mad scientist mode "Isn't it beautiful?!"  
"Beautiful?!" I shouted "It's horrible! You were going to kill mine and Claire's children for the sake of that sick figment of your imagination?!"  
"Shut up!!" he screamed, jamming the gun into my chest "What could you know about anything?!! You just don't understand..." his voice softened, but not in a nice way, still maintaining that insane edge to it "...You just don't understand. Nobody did...no-one..."  
He glared at me.  
"My Neo-Genesis is all I have left!! I have nothing more!! I won't allow anybody to take it away from me!"  
He stood back.  
"So...Umbrella probably set you up, huh? Sent here to steal information on my precious Neo-Genesis and the GeVolution virus? Well I got news for you friend - It isn't going to happen!!"   
"Umbrella? They're the ones who kidnapped our children-"  
It was obvious that paranoia had worked its way into his insanity.  
"I don't believe you" he said, and raised the gun "So say goodbye"  
Claire threw herself against me.  
"NO!" she cried out.  
"Two in one go" he grinned.  
"Claire! Stay back!" I said to her.  
"DON'T MOVE, ESCODAN!!!"   
We all turned to see Ada and five soldiers standing in the doorway, their guns pointed at Escodan. He turned, waving his gun at them, moving towards the slumbering Neo-Genesis.  
"Hand over the GeVolution virus, Escodan!" Ada yelled at him.  
Escodan grinned, nastily.  
"Certainly" he said, and tapped a few numbers into the keypad.  
All at once, the entire room was silent. The only sound the draining of the Cryo-fluids as they trickled out of the creatures sleep chamber.  
"Claire...Sherry...stay back" I whispered, and we all took six or seven steps back. We knew what would happen.  
As we looked on, Escodan laughed as the Neo-Genesis woke, its arms twitching as it regained muscle control, and then opening two red eyes. They glowed with anger.  
I suddenly remembered what Ada had said about the fusion of emotions into the Umbrella creatures infected with the GeVolution virus. A horrible thought came to me.  
I called out to Ada  
"Ada! The Neo-Genesis is unstable!! It's going to go crazy!!"  
It was as if she didn't hear me but Claire and Sherry did, as did the soldiers with Ada, who stepped back.   
The creature stirred, and in one powerful movement, it brought its arm against the glass, which cracked into a spider-web, before another quick hit sent the glass exploding outwards towards us, and we turned away to prevent ourselves from being blinded by the shards of glass.  
The Neo-Genesis stepped out of its chamber, and stretched to its full height of twelve feet.  
I suddenly realised why the corridors around here were so high. So that creatures such as the Neo-Genesis could easily be transported around...which meant that nothing would stop the creature now.  
"My beautiful child..." Escodan could be heard to say.  
The creature turned to Escodan.  
In one moment, Escodan's face turned white.  
"No...no...you're not supposed to turn on me!!"  
But it was too late.  
In one, smooth movement, the creature drew its arm back, and thrust one of its huge clawed hands into Escodan as hard as it could. Escodan stiffened with the impact, the spikes exploding through the other side of his body as the creature rose the impaled scientist up into the air, and roared in triumph. Then it hurled him against a wall, and turned on Ada and the soldiers. Claire turned Sherry away and held her to her chest as both Claire and I looked on in fascinated horror.   
Ada threw herself to one side as the creature lunged at her, and the soldiers behind her looked at each other and began to spray gunfire in the Neo-Genesis's direction. Every bullet hit the mark, but they might as well have been flinging pebbles at it.  
The thing stepped forward under the hail of fire, and roared.  
"FIRE!! FIRE!!" one of the men screamed, before the creature tore him apart in one swipe.  
"It...it's...not even flinching!!" one of the others screamed, and made to run before he was razed across the back by one of the sets of claws the creature head.  
I grabbed my radio as it continued to gore up the other soldiers, and clicked it on.  
"Chris?! You there?!"  
There was a crackle.  
"Yeah?"   
"Chris, we've got to get out NOW!"  
"Have you got the kids?"  
"Yeah, we got 'em - we've got to get out of this place, seriously"  
"Why?"  
"The Neo-Genesis is live and kicking, and if we're not out of here within two hours, we'll probably be dead"  
"Damn...any specific meeting places?"  
"Providing we can out of the room...then go for the third floor in the lab we're in - We'll need all the backup we can get"  
"Any specific room?" Chris asked, calmly.  
"ANY DAMNED ROOM!!" Claire yelled, impatiently.  
"Okay! Okay! I know that was you Claire, so I'm just saying cool it!"  
"Chris, there's nothing to remain 'cool' about!!" I shouted into the walkie-talkie "We're in a room with a creature that's just taken out five soldiers and soaked up five clips of MP5 gunfire without even flinching!!   
Somewhere, I could hear another gun, a magnum firing above the roars of the Neo-Genesis.   
It was Ada.  
"ADA!! GET OVER HERE!!" I cried.  
She looked at me.  
"I'll get out another way - probably see you a couple of floors down!" she called back.  
The co-operative nature of the remark almost stunned me. It had initially surprised me that she had barely flinched as she realised we'd all escaped, but the fact she wasn't screwing at me anymore seemed to make the world of difference.  
"Okay!"  
We looked around for any alternative methods of escape. Somehow, the prospect of going back through a lab holding creatures in cryo-sleep was somewhat less attractive than trying to find another way out.  
"Over there!" Claire said, and pointed to a corridor that led off to the left. It was a very high corridor, but it had been positioned so that from the main door you couldn't see it, but a change in position and Claire's keen eyes had rectified this.  
We ran for it. The Genesis roared behind us as we ran, taking sharp left and right turns, and I prayed to god that Ada would be okay.  
  
The heat was still on. We ran into another storage room, with broken glass tanks lining the walls, and four hunters standing menacingly in front of us.  
I pulled out my magnum. I hadn't used it much during our visit, but from my experience, hunters died more quickly when I used my Desert Eagle AE. I had to fire with one hand, what with me carrying Steve and Claire carrying Ada, so Claire pulled out her semi-automatic, holding Ada to her body protectively as Sherry stood behind her and out of the way.  
I fired, so did Claire as the creature leapt towards us, and we easily fought off all four of them.  
"Gets easier every time" Claire remarked, as we stepped through the room and towards a lift built into the wall.   
There was a roar in the distance, followed by a shaking as the creature stomped around. It was getting nearer. It was coming right for us.  
"Hello Mr. Genesis" I muttered, as I urged the others on into the lift, and pressed the floor button for '3'.  
"Is that thing after us now?" Sherry asked, a distinct hint of worry in her voice.  
"Don't worry" Claire said softly "He won't catch up with us"  
I sighed. I still wasn't used to my 'big brother' role yet. I couldn't think of a single thing to say apart from  
"No worries, eh?"  
I sounded a little foolish, but Sherry did attempt a smile.  
The door pinged open, and we stepped out. Suddenly, there was a tremendous crash behind us as the lift crumpled like a tin can under the pressure of the Neo-Genesis flying up from beneath it. It crawled up through the lift gap, and was stuck for a moment. It was clinging on.  
We ran, and as we ran I heard the sound of metal being torn apart like tin foil, and then the roar of the Neo-Genesis. It had followed us! Damn, what did you have to do to kill an Umbrella monster?!  
We hurtled round the corner, and while we'd had fifty metres advantage over it, the gap closed quickly. I was fighting panic when I saw a door straight ahead - Not a large door, a regular steel door that the thing wouldn't be able to fit through.  
Zombies moaned around us, but we had little to worry from them, if anything they were giving us a helping hand, slowing down the Neo-Genesis slightly with every step we made. We'd been running a lot lately, and the door was just in our view now.  
I grabbed the handle, threw it open, and we all bundled in together, slamming the door behind us. The door dented and shook slightly as the Neo-Genesis tried to get in - But then it stopped. Steve and Ada hadn't woken up, they were still sound asleep.  
"Why's it stopped?" Sherry asked.   
"Higher intelligence" Claire said "It's trying to find another way in, and I don't doubt it will"  
"So if we just get out now, there's just the possibility of our survival" I said.  
"Uh...Leon?"  
"Mm?"  
"Are you sure we shouldn't try to kill the thing? I mean, we can't just let a creature like that escape into the countryside"  
I faltered. She was right. We'd be contradicting the meaning of our mission if we didn't at least try to kill the thing.  
"Okay" I conceded "In which case we have three main tasks to complete for us to kill the thing"  
I leaned against the wall.  
"One. We find out HOW to kill it, there may be some kind of a weak spot somewhere. Two-"  
"No, no..." Claire said, slightly irritably "You're missing my point"  
"What have you got in mind?" I asked a little suspiciously.  
"Well..." Claire looked away for a moment and then up at me "...If we can get clear, then the self-destruct sequence should kill it easily"  
I stared at her.  
"How do you suggest we set off the sequence?" I asked.  
Claire pointed at another one of the maps on the wall.  
"This is the technology and command level. There's probably a control room around here somewhere that can set off the self-destruct sequence"  
"Okay" I said, a little doubtfully "It's possible...I suppose"  
"Fine" she stated simply, with a slight smile on her face "Let's give it a shot"  
We looked around the corridor we'd bundled into. We walked through it slowly, and through various twisting corridors before we ended up in a wider corridor, quite high, but not high enough for the Genesis, thank god.  
It was ominously quiet. Just a faint buzzing.  
At that moment, the PA system screeched into life.  
"Ah, Mr. Kennedy and friends - It's a pleasure to see you"  
It was a smooth, nauseatingly slick voice. But it was overwhelmingly familiar.  
"Are you...?"   
"Yes" the voice rasped "Dr. William Kemmin - I guess you're surprised that I'm here"  
Surprised wasn't the word. We were stunned. Since he was probably watching us through a security system, we presumed he could hear every word we were saying. I handed Steve gently over to Sherry, who nodded and cradled him.  
"How did you escape?!" Claire asked, angrily.  
"Everybody has an escape plan, and I had one. It's such a shame you left me there, I wouldn't be trying to kill you all now"  
"So why aren't you?" I asked, sourly.  
"I like to play with my prey" he said.  
"So what do you have in mind?"  
"Hmm...Yes..."  
There was the sound of scraping metal to the front of us, and we looked on in horror as the grate that had been there slid open. It wasn't a ventilation shaft, it was a disguised entrance for what looked like attack deterrents. The deterrent in this case was a giant scorpion.  
Sherry and my son were at the front, and they were immediately vulnerable.  
Sherry screamed out as the thing raised up its tail, and stabbed down with its poison sting as hard as it could.  
The blood rush to the head that causes a man to throw himself on a grenade for another got to me - And I barged her out of the way. The tail came down hard on my shoulder, the poison sting tearing through my clothes, and stabbing into my flesh.  
I screamed out, the pain was excruciating.   
I heard Claire's gunfire as the Scorpion was quickly disposed of, and I knelt down.  
"Are you okay?" she asked.  
I grabbed my shoulder, wincing.  
"Should be...fine..." I managed, through gritted teeth. My sight was quickly becoming fuzzy and distorted, the only sound filling my head the sound of my own heart beating. My voice sounded like an echo, as did Claire's and Sherry's. I was suddenly feeling very ill, and staggered a little as I tried to rectify my position by blinking.  
The...poison sting...I was infected...with a virus? The T-Virus? Or just some kind of venom...I was losing consciousness quickly. No, please not the T-Virus...  
As I lost consciousness, I prayed that Claire, Sherry, Steve and Ada (baby Ada) would get out alive. Perhaps even the adult Ada too.  
CLAIRE  
  
A sting in the Tail  
  
As soon as I saw Leon slump to the floor, I realised that something was very wrong.   
"Oh god!" Sherry cried out in shock as Leon slumped to the ground.   
We sat by him and looked at his unconscious form, lying only a few feet from the dead scorpion that had stung him.   
I was in an emotional state that could be described as panic, shock and a dim knowledge that I was losing control of the situation.  
'It's okay Claire' I thought 'You've got a grip...you got a grip...'  
There was the sound of footsteps, and I spun around to see Chris and Jill running down the corridor, followed closely by Barry and Rebecca.  
They'd obviously contacted them to bring them along - But I had more important things to worry about at the moment.  
"Hey...What's happened to Leon?!" Chris asked.  
"He's been poisoned!" I said "What with, I don't know"  
The PA system screeched into life again.  
"Seems your husband...is somewhat indisposed"  
"When I find you I'm going to cut off both your balls with a blunt knife!!" I yelled at the camera that was watching us from the corner of the room.  
"Now listen" Kemmin was suddenly deadly serious "There is only one thing that can cure him now. He has an advanced for of the T-Virus, a cure to which is on the virus countermeasures level - Level 4"   
"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, stonily.  
"Because I like to toy - I want to see how you'll react - besides, I can't kill off Leon so quickly - So I suggest you run, because within fifteen minutes he'll be one of the living dead"  
I handed Ada over to Chris, and then I took off, running down the corridor and shouted back  
"Look after Leon and the kids!! I'm going to Level 4!!"  
"But-"  
"I'LL BE OKAY!" I replied.  
  
I ran around the corner, not even bothering to notice the decapitated zombie corpses lying in the corridor  
"Pay attention" Kemmin said sternly "Take the elevator down to floor 4, I'll instruct you further when you get there"  
'If I ever get there' I thought, as I stepped into the elevator, stabbing the button for level 4.  
When the doors pinged open, I was greeted with four zombies trying to lurch into the elevator. I cocked the MP5 and obliterated the brains of the four lumbering carcasses. When the bleeding pieces of earth had hit the ground, I ran out into the sterile corridors.  
"Take the first left" Kemmin instructed "Then go straight down the corridor, ignore the malfunctioning computer and take the right hand turn - Once inside, check for escaped test subjects, I saw a couple creeping around"   
I ran, cursing Kemmin but also thanking him at the same time. I knew he was helping me, but I knew he was toying with me, watching me with some kind of perverted pleasure.   
I also thought of the recumbent form of Leon, lying there...  
I was suddenly filled with anger, which drove me on faster.  
I did indeed ignore the computer, which fizzed and sparked dangerously, and then took the right hand turn. Inside the turn was a door, a thick metal door that had another keypad on it.  
"How can I get in?!" I asked, loudly.  
"It's open, just undo the wheel lock and go in" Kemmin replied.   
I turned the wheel lock anti-clockwise. Sure enough, the door was open. I stepped inside, and narrowly avoided being torn in half by the razor sharp tongue of a licker, which I quickly disposed of.  
I walked inside, looking cautiously around.  
"Now what?"  
"There's a grey console with '1' stamped on it. I want you to go to that console"  
I ran up to it.  
"Press the green button, then the red button and then the yellow button, followed by the third valve"   
I followed the instructions to the letter.  
As I twisted the last valve, there was a hiss and a whirr. Through a small, previously sealed hatch, and then a small glass cylinder slid up into view, inside was a whitish liquid.  
"What's this?"  
"The advanced T-Virus cure - Look, just take it across the room and slot it into the console labelled '2'"  
I searched the large room for the console, which I quickly found after scanning the labels on each of the consoles.   
Step by step, he took me through the process of putting the cure through its three stages of synthesis, which took ten minutes.   
I looked at my watch, and realised that I had three minutes to get to Leon before his condition would be irreversible.  
I turned to run...but I heard a deep rumble. The rumble got louder, and when I realised what it was, I was already running towards the door.  
The wall cracked, and then exploded, tiny pieces of concrete hitting my back as I ran.  
Into the room leapt the Neo-Genesis, its enormous form crouching in the only ten-foot high room, and it roared.  
I leapt through the doorway as one massive claw swiped for me, and missed by only a few inches.  
On the other side, I breathed hard as the creature tried to find me - But by then I was already on my feet, and running towards the elevator.   
  
  
My watch now read one minute as I stepped out of the elevator. I ran through the winding corridors until I reached Leon, whose sweating brow was being mopped by Rebecca.  
"I've got the serum" I panted, and, my hands shaking, removed the T-Virus cure and searched for a hypodermic syringe - There was one undamaged empty hypodermic I had, and with forty seconds to spare, sucked up the bluish liquid into the syringe. I checked for any blockage, slid up Leon's sleeve and quickly injected him with the syringe - with only fifteen seconds to go.  
We all watched Leon, tensely. Nothing happened. While Leon didn't turn into a zombie, he was still unconscious.  
"Is there a medical room or an office of some kind around here?" I asked.  
"There's the security staff room a few doors down, it's got some couches we can lay him on" Rebecca said.  
"Okay" Chris said, handing Ada over to me so that he could help carry Leon "Let's do that, and THEN we can work out how the hell we're going to get outta here"  
  
The room wasn't large, but it wasn't small either. It had three three-piece suites, and two armchairs, as well as a pool table, vending machine and Arcade machine. We were all sat around on the spare seats, but Sherry and me were on the floor.   
It was across one of the three-suites that Leon was laid, still unconscious.  
"He just can't stay out of trouble, that boy" Barry said, shaking his head "Shot by a woman, had his leg broken by a Nemesis, drained by a plant and now this - What happened again"  
"He got stung by a scorpion trying to save me" Sherry said, quietly.  
It was at this point I noticed a turning point in Leon and Sherry's relationship. Leon had saved her life once before, but she hadn't had time to consider exactly what he'd done for her.  
I could see tears prick her eyes.  
"You okay?" I asked, softly.  
"I guess so, Claire...but..."  
She lowered her head.  
"What?" I asked, as gently as I could.  
"He saved my life...again. I never got to thank him for it the previous time...I seem to forget that he's my brother...my flesh and blood family, the only person who reminds me of mom and dad as they used to be" she looked up at me "And you've been so good to me too...I haven't thanked anybody for what they've done for me"  
"There's no need to worry" I said, softly "You've thanked us all before"  
"No, it's bigger than that...I just guess I feel ungrateful"  
I tousled her hair, and smiled, trying to hide my obvious worry about Leon.  
"You're not ungrateful"  
She smiled softly.   
"Thnaks-"  
There was a faint groan from Leon. We all looked on as his eyes flickered open.  
"Whoa...Where am I?" he croaked, rubbing his head.  
"Level 4, the security staff room - We're all here" I said, running up to him.  
"Claire...? I must be in heaven..."  
"Not quite"  
"So we're STILL in hell?"  
"'fraid so"  
He rolled his eyes, and then winced.  
"Oh...my head...Has anybody got any aspirins or something?"  
"I'll check the kitchen" Rebecca said, walking into the small kitchen that adjoined the staff room.  
"The Neo-Genesis?"  
"Still hanging in there, but we'll get out before it gets us" I said, patting him on the shoulder.  
"What about Ada?"  
"She's here"  
"I mean the adult version"  
I drew back a little.  
"Haven't seen her"  
"Okay...don't worry Claire, I just wanted to know...I mean, we don't want to endanger people's lives, right?"  
I sighed.  
"Leon, tell me once and for all - Do you still have feelings for her?"  
"Apart from feelings of pity and wanting to be friends...then no, of course not"  
"So...you..."  
"Claire! Yes I DO love you!"  
I smiled.  
"I'm glad we've got that straight"  
  
LEON  
  
The Last Escape  
  
We all knew now that this was our last chance at an escape, and we needed to get out now. From there, everything went quickly. We decided that a small group be sent to the bottom level to the main security room to activate the self-destruct sequence, a second would be sent to find a method of escape, and then call the security team to detail how they should get to the escape point.   
Claire, Rebecca and myself were on the security team, and Jill, Rebecca and Barry were to find our escape route, while simultaneously acting as a bodyguard to Sherry, Steve and Ada. Chris was one of the best fighters in the group, which   
"Right" Chris said, hand on his side "This is our last meeting before we escape - And it's not guaranteed that we'll all survive...so I guess this could be it"  
We shook hands with Barry, Rebecca and Jill in turn, occasionally making a joke and patting them on the shoulder.   
When Chris finally came to Jill, there was a long silence as he looked at her.   
"So...Jill"  
"Take care...Chris"  
Chris looked as if he was about to say something, but then just shook his head slowly, and stepped forwards towards Jill. He gently touched her cheek, and to everybody's surprise he kissed her on the lips. She accepted the kiss, which became deeper as she looped her arms around his neck.  
It was maybe two minutes before we could untwine the pair of them.  
"Uh...Finished?" I asked.  
"Yes..." Chris said dryly, and turned to Jill "Live, dammit...okay?"  
"You too, Chris, you too" she said, smiling.  
Chris smiled back.  
"We'll be back" he said, before the three of us turned and walked towards the lift.   
  
"You sure this plan of yours will work, Claire?" Chris asked Claire as the lift went down.   
"I'm sure it will - Are you worried about Jill?" she asked, softly.  
Chris looked at her.  
"Yes, I am - I'm also worried about my niece and nephew, as you are. It's just one of those situations you can't afford to screw around with"  
"Right" I said "But if we don't focus, we won't get the job done anyway"  
We stepped through the lift doors when it closed, and we found ourselves in another one of Umbrella's repetitive, grey underground labs.   
"OK" Chris said "Let's find this security room, and quick - I really hate grey"  
Chris pulled out his shotgun, we pulled out our MP5's.   
"Hey! Where'd you get those from?"  
"A funny little Irishman gave them to me"  
"Ha-ha Claire"  
According to the wall map, the security room was in the centre of the level.   
"Shouldn't be too hard to find" Chris said, and lead the way into a corridor that lead somewhere into the middle of the labyrinth.   
Since we weren't particularly aware of the layout of the level, we stuck close together, listening for any sound, any out of the ordinary disturbances - which we soon got.  
The air vents on either side of us burst, and out leapt two lickers, screaming that horrible blood-curdling cry that they always let off when the blood lust was upon them.  
Stepping back, Chris unleashed two shots from his Remington 120, blowing one into red pulp, the second was laced with gunfire from both mine and Claire's weapons, so the creature soon fell.  
Down the corridor were three more zombies, which we disposed of with haste.  
"I think that the main thing we've got to worry about right now is managing to get out in fifteen minutes" Chris said, as we all hurried towards the inner sanctum.   
"We've done it twice now - Third time should be no problem, huh Claire?"  
"Exactly" she smiled at my remark, rolling her eyes.  
Chris threw open the door, and we bundled inside, the door slamming behind us. It was pitch black.  
My eyes could catch the vaguest edges of some kind of equipment, and it seemed to be pretty empty. The air was still, and pretty stale. I nearly choked on this horrible air, but I stayed glued to the spot.  
"Anybody got a torch?" Chris asked.  
"Uh..."   
"You don't. Okay then. Let's try to find the light"  
There was a long silence.  
"It's like one of those cheesy B-Movies" Claire said "Somebody's going to laugh demonically now".  
"MWAHAHAHA" I said.  
"MWAHAHAHAHAHAA!" Claire replied.  
"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" Chris cried out, all of us in hysterics.  
"Hey, I've found the light-" Claire said, and went to press it.  
"MWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" I barked.  
"No, wait, this is a real killer-" Chris said "MWAHAHAHAHA-" the light clicked on. Chris was staring into the yellow eyes of a hunter "-HAHAhaha...." He froze, and the creature shrieked a blood-curdling cry, before it brought back its claw to slice Chris's head off his shoulders.  
Chris ducked, and fired upwards into the creature, which I finished off with a single shot from my magnum, sending bloody chunks of its brain matter splattering into the ground.   
"Je-sus!" Chris cried out, sprawled on his back on the floor "That was damned close"  
"So don't be such a smartass next time" Claire warned him.  
We looked around the room we were now in. It was actually quite small, for a security room. It was packed with high-tech computers, that looked more like hunks of badly cut metal, that looked in turn as if they belonged on the death star.  
There was a very wide console, a flatbed map and a central computer in the middle of the room.  
We walked up to it, admiring its terribly Neolithic, but bizarrely high tech look.  
Chris went up to the keyboard.  
"At least the keyboard's normal"  
He stabbed a couple of the keys.  
There was a beep, and a box came up on the screen.  
LOG IN:  
PASSWORD:  
Chris grasped his head, as if he was trying to rip out his hair.  
"Password?! Oh, fantastic!"   
Claire and I looked at each other. It seemed Mr. Yates, the head security officer was our godsend.   
"User name: Yates, password: anewday"   
Chris stared at me.  
"What?"  
"Just type it in!" Claire insisted.  
Chris looked as if he was about to argue, and then thought better of it. He turned around, and tapped into the keyboard.  
There was a high beep.  
"Hey!" Chris said "It worked!"  
"Didst thou doubt me?" I said, in a deliberately bad Shakespearean accent.  
"Yea, for thou art unreliable" he replied, hands on hips.   
"Could you two please stop doing bad Shakespeare impressions?" Claire said, jokingly.   
Chris stabbed the keyboard a little more, then the screen turned red, with black writing on it.  
  
WARNING: You are about to activate the facility self-destruct sequence. This sequence cannot be aborted after ten minutes have passed. Please observe this procedure:  
1. Enter the authorisation code for the Self-Destruct sequence.  
2. Pull the ignition switches simultaneously   
3. Press the green and red buttons simultaneously  
  
Chris stabbed the Y button, and then a box came up on the screen.  
  
CODE:   
  
Chris looked at us.  
"What's the code?"  
"How do you know we have it?"  
"I just do" he said "Can you please tell me the code?"  
"Okay" Claire breathed "0-1-4-5-9-0-0-6"   
Chris typed in each number as Claire read them out to him.  
There was a beep, and a light above the screen turned red. Stage one complete.  
Claire and I searched the room for the ignition switches, which were inside small disguised power boxes. They were large, double handed metal switches, which Claire and I grabbed.  
She looked at me, and nodded.  
"Okay...Three...two...one...Go!" I said, and we pulled the switches at the same time.  
There was another beep from the console.  
"That's stage two" Chris announced "Now it's time for the final stage"  
We all walked up to the console opposite the main computer, and Chris used both hands to cover the two glowing switches.  
"Ready?" he asked.  
"Ready" Claire and I replied in unison.  
Chris took a deep breath. His arms were tense.  
Very carefully, he forced both of the buttons downwards at once.  
There was third, and final beep.  
Suddenly, a klaxon wail filled the room.  
'ATTENTION' a husky male voice announced 'THE SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE HAS NOW BEEN ACTIVATED - PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE EXITS IN A CALM, ORDERLY FASHION. I REPEAT...'  
The message was repeated twice.  
"Let's go!!" Chris yelled.  
We all made a dash for the exit.  
  
Outside the room, going towards the elevator, Chris's walkie-talkie crackled.  
"Chris? Are you there?"  
It was Jill.  
I saw Chris take up his walkie-talkie.  
"I'm here"  
"We've found a helipad on level 1 - If you take the elevator up, we can meet you at the safety door - But be careful, the door's going to close automatically in five minutes!"  
"Why's that?"  
"It's for executives only! Hurry!" Jill insisted, before clicking off the radio.  
Chris turned to us  
"Who's in the mood for some sprinting?"  
"Well, we're not in the mood, but if we gotta, we gotta" I said, Claire laughing softly.   
  
The elevator seemed to take forever, I was counting the seconds it took us to go right to the top. I could hear a distant bang, and a roar. The Neo-Genesis wasn't far away now, I knew that if we weren't able to make our escape in time, that creature would probably get us before the timer hit zero.  
When the door pinged open, accompanied by the frenzied screaming of alarms, we ran out into a slightly different corridor that looked as if it was made out of concrete, but with metal fixtures. The narrow immediacy of this corridor didn't last long, and soon we were in a wide, roughly hewn concrete corridor with four or five doors on either side, and a large open blast door at the end of it, and we were almost pumped with energy to see Sherry, Jill, Barry and Rebecca standing by it - Rebecca and Sherry holding Steve and Ada, their faces lighting up as we rushed towards them.  
"Two minutes to go! That's pretty slow on your part!" Barry joked "Eleven minutes left on the timer for the self-destruct system!"   
Chris stepped through the doorway, and turned to Claire and me.   
"Okay, let's go-"  
From down the corridor, there was a terrible roar. We turned, and saw the Neo-Genesis standing there, it's twelve foot presence making us all feel very, very small indeed.  
It walked slowly towards us. Claire and I began to fire our MP5's, Barry shooting past us at it with his magnum, but our weapons barely made a mark, Chris firing too and Sherry standing, gawping in fascinated horror at the Neo-Genesis as it walked towards us. It suddenly began to run, Claire and I dodged to the left and right as it ran, slowed and turned towards me. I rolled between its legs, shooting from the other side of it.  
It turned. I suddenly realised I was going to die - It was going to hit me anyway. It roared, a horrible roar. I realised that it wasn't just a mindless roar. In one single moment I realised that it was the fury of innocent, the fury of the sacrificed and the violated that flowed through its veins - it was feeling emotion all right, and for a very good reason. It drew back its claw, and was about to strike, when there was the crack of a semi-automatic behind it.   
It turned, and to my horror I could see Ada standing there, firing the sturdy weapon as bullets raked the Neo-Genesis's body.  
"Run!!" she cried.  
There was a sudden sense of déjà vu. Of returning to Raccoon, with the T-90 bearing down on me, and then Ada firing ineffectually at it as it strode towards her...  
There was a sudden feeling of joy as I realised that she was trying to save me, but then sudden horror as the Neo-Genesis charged her.  
"NOOO!!!!!" I screamed. But it was too late.  
The huge claw of the creature tore through her body in an instant, and she screamed out in agony, before it hurled her body to the floor.  
"YOU BASTARD!!!" I screamed, angry beyond all belief. I emptied three clips of magnum bullets into it as it walked towards me, and as if my anger was an offensive weapon in itself, it fell onto its knees, and keeled over.  
I continued to fire for a few moments, screaming at its recumbent form.   
I managed to get control, and I ran up to Ada's stricken body. She was alive...just.  
"Leon..." she was choking on the words "...You tried to save me"  
"Because you're my friend" I whispered, on the verge of breaking down and weeping.  
"Leon...I'm sorry...I've been so cold, so heartless..."  
"It's okay" I whispered "We can get out and resolve all this"  
"No" she whispered back "My time is over. I'm not going to make it this time"  
"Ada..."   
"Leon - Please escape...you have a beautiful wife and two beautiful children to look after...I'm not worth the effort"  
"No, I want to you to escape with us!" I croaked, trying to hold back the tears I felt welling up in my eyes.  
"Leon...you were right all along...it wasn't your fault - And..." she hesitated, as if she was embarrassed with what she was about to tell me "...I was jealous all along, that you fell in love with Claire...I nearly killed you because of it..."  
She coughed. Her grip on life was being slowly but surely relinquished.   
"I...Just want you all to escape...to life a life I could never live"  
She smiled softly, a little stream of blood leaking from her lips.  
"I'm sorry I didn't live..." she coughed a little, then whispered "...But then again, do any of us?"  
I nodded.   
"Goodbye...and don't wait up..." she whispered, and closed her eyes.  
Her head lolled to one side.  
"Ada..." my tears trickled down my face.  
Claire put her hand on my shoulder.  
"I'm sorry...but we've got to go, we have ten minutes to go"  
I turned to her, face red, and nodded. The least thing I could do was disobey Ada's final wish.  
"You're right...we've got to get out of here right now"  
I was wrapped in sorrow. Ada was dead. There was to be no comeback. Suddenly, I was snapped out of my sorrow by a sound of clicking. There was a screech of metal, and Claire & I turned slowly to see, with horror, that the door was closing, quickly. Claire and I ran towards it, but it was too late. The door slammed shut...but Claire and me were on the wrong side of it.  
I clicked my walkie-talkie.  
"Can you get the door open?"  
"No" Chris replied "It won't open - You'll have to find another way out"  
Chris's voice was suddenly replaced by Barry's voice.  
"Listen carefully - Go down to floor two. Go down the corridor, and take the left turn. There's another method of escape that way - We're going to get a helicopter and...we'll find you, okay? Good luck"  
There was a chorus of good lucks from the other side, before the walkie-talkie clicked off.  
Claire looked at me.  
"We're not going to make it, are we?" she said, softly.  
"Of course we are..." I replied.  
'EIGHT MINUTES REMAINING'  
Claire and I ran back to the lift as fast as we could, and jumped inside, selecting floor two, and the doors slid closed as we took another journey down by another level. We came out in a corridor, which we immediately sprinted down. I had done a lot of sprinting that day, and I was exhausted.  
Six minutes.  
We took the left hand turn as Barry instructed, and after a few seconds of running, we skidded to a halt.  
Claire groaned.  
"Oh great...A train"   
We were standing in a huge, dirty metal rail shed, with three concrete platforms, and equipment lying around, unused. The train sat right in front of us, as if it had been expecting us. It was a long, blue sleek train that bore an uncanny resemblance to the kinds of train that went through the British Channel tunnel. It was slightly stained black, and it did look a bit shambolic - But when it's less than six minutes until your immediate surroundings explode spectacularly, it would seem like the best escape vehicle a person could ask for.  
"It'll do. Come on, let's get on board"  
We ran down the metal safety railing that separated the train from the platform, and tried to find the drivers entrance.  
The train was very long, but we were fairly close to the front.  
We found the entrance door, and ran inside.  
Five minutes.  
Claire and I staggered into the cabin, the controls gleaming. It had a few consoles and a few levers - But having used an Umbrella train before, Claire and I got the basic idea as to how to start it up. But there were complications.  
We frantically fiddled with the controls. Claire pulled down the accelerator as I started the enormous engine.  
It rumbled for a few moments, before dying again.  
"Oh...no...no...nonononono!!" I hissed, jerking the key again.  
"It's not starting? What are we doing wrong?!" Claire cried.  
"Um..."  
We stood there for three minutes, completely aware that in two minutes the whole place would be ash.  
"Let's try resetting the train system, then I start the oil pump while you try the key again"  
Claire pressed the power button, and everything shut off.   
After about ten seconds, Claire pressed the button again. The lights, computer and buttons flared into life again.   
I checked the computer.  
"The rails are on, everything's on"  
Claire inhaled, and then jerked the pump switch. After a few seconds, I tried the ignition again.  
With one minute to go, the train jerked forwards, and began to accelerate. We saw the lights of the shed disappear as we began to go down the long, dark tunnel of the escape route.  
Forty seconds...  
The train hit top speed, and was soon hammering down the tunnel at 150 miles per hour.  
Thirty seconds...  
I squeezed Claire tight, and she buried her head in my neck, I buried my face in her hair.  
Twenty seconds....  
The express train from hell was on its way.  
Ten seconds...  
"Claire" I whispered "I love you so much"   
"I love you too" she replied softly, kissing me.  
Two seconds...  
"Is it over-?"  
BOOM!!  
There was a deafening explosion, it tore through the ears and forced its way into your eyes, vibrating in your head as the facility exploded, hidden charges in its walls detonating everywhere.   
There was a sound like air rushing down a pipe, and Claire and I were thrown down as the fireball chased the train down the tunnel, causing it to shake as it forced itself along the sides of the train, and I looked up to see the flames licking the side of the window - But then the fire fell back, and we were in the clear. We stood up, legs shaking.  
"We've...done it" Claire whispered, clasping my hand tightly.  
"Yeah...again..." I replied, and we flopped down, exhausted into the seats of the train. We'd done it again. We'd escaped from certain death by the narrowest of narrow margins. We'd won.   
I could see this happening many more times in the future, as our war against Umbrella continued. But not yet. No, it wasn't going to happen yet.  
"So..." Claire breathed "...Do you ever think we'll get down to being proper parents to Steve and Ada?"  
"Yeah, of course we will...Sherry too. She's my sister for gods sakes, I've got to be more like her brother..." I turned to her "...You've got one. What sorts of things do they do?"  
"Uh..." Claire thought "They're very caring, concerned for the safety of their sister, beat them up when they're very young, take the mickey out of them, buy expensive stuff for them, have fun with them, help them meet the boy of their dreams, be on the same relay team with them at school..."  
I stared at her.  
"Claire, what the hell are you talking about?"  
"Exactly what you asked me" she said, grinning.  
I scratched my neck.  
"I think I'll try to work it out myself"  
We were just settling back, when we heard a faint crashing noise.   
"What the hell...?" I muttered, and clicked on the security camera screen.  
We both scanned through each of the cameras one by one. Camera two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...We froze when we saw the view through camera eight.  
In faint colour, inside the fire-blasted sixth carriage back from the cab. It was the Neo-Genesis. The creature was kneeling down, in what looked like deep meditation.  
"No..." Claire whispered, her voice increasing in volume slightly "...It's not possible"  
We looked at each other.  
"What now?" she asked.  
I didn't know.   
Neither of us really knew.  
"First, we've got to stop this train"  
Claire nodded, and slammed the brake button. Nothing happened. She frowned, and slapped it again. She tried again.  
"The brake's not working?!" she yelled, annoyed.  
I grabbed the emergency brake lever, and yanked it. It didn't budge. I pulled it with all my strength, until sweat was streaming down my forehead. Claire tried to help, but it came off in our hands.  
"Oh god...we've got a runaway train on our hands" Claire said, worried.  
"I suppose that at least things couldn't get any worse than this"  
There was a blaring of sirens, a mournful wail that neutered my soul.  
Then, a crisp, clear voice said  
"Now, now...I couldn't let you escape when you'd put an end to my plans. So, I rigged the train...aren't I nice? Oh, and right now the train's five minute self destruct sequence is starting...Goodbye, Leon and Claire"  
Kemmin's voice disappeared off the speakers, and it was replaced by the monotonal male voice  
'A BIOHAZARDOUS OUTBREAK HAS BEEN DETECTED - THE SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE OF THIS TRAIN HAS BEEN ACTIVATED - IT CANNOT BE ABORTED. FIVE MINUTES UNTIL DETONATION"  
'Of course things could get worse' I thought, before clenching my fists.  
"I swear, I'm going to kill that guy..."  
"Me too" Claire muttered. My mind swam, I couldn't think of any ideas. We had less than five minutes to escape.   
"Claire...What's in the carriage behind us?"   
Claire stepped through the automatic door, which slid back smoothly.  
"Uh...Looks like some emergency rescue equipment, a couple of fire extinguishers, some of those heat blankets, flares, a crowbar..."  
Her voice faded, and we slowly turned our heads to look at each other. We grinned.   
"Does the hatch in the roof of the cab work?" I asked, rhetorically.  
"Think so" Claire said, sweetly. She thumped a switch.  
  
Kingdom's coming  
  
I was aware of the screaming slipstream as soon as I climbed out onto the roof of the train. It pummelled me, making me tip my head down to avoid passing out.  
Claire climbed up after me, and together, we clung to the roof of the train in the darkness of the tunnel.  
"We can't release the flares unless we're outside..." Claire said, as loudly as she could in the gale.  
I nodded, and as if on cue, the train shot out into the crystal clear morning. The golden sunlight washing over us was a shock to the senses, making us squeeze our eyes shut after the dimness of the underground lab. I looked up into a beautiful blue sky, the sun shining like a burning golden ball in the early morning. We looked to our sides, watching the green landscape shoot past us as the train hammered through it.   
We knew that we had only three minutes remaining before the train exploded - Our gamble was a big one, we were both very tired and all we wanted to do was to just go to sleep - But we knew that that was one thing we couldn't do.  
We crawled up the train slightly, until Claire produced one of the two flares we had taken from the supply box.  
"Ready?" she asked.  
"Ready" I replied.  
She brought its base hard down on the surface, and we turned our faces away as a fluorescent green rocket thumped up into the sky, leaving a greenish smoking vapour trail behind it.  
It burst in the cold morning sky, its greenish light flaring like a special effect from Star Wars. The glow glared in the sky, and we looked at each other, fingers-crossed and eyes burning with hope.   
Three minutes.  
"Claire...If we don't get out of this alive, I just want to say that I wouldn't want to die with anybody else"  
"You know something? I feel the same way too"  
Then, there was a tearing sound. The tearing of metal that seemed to tear my world apart - We turned our heads slightly to see the Neo-Genesis rising up out of the third carriage like a phoenix rising from the flames, and it screamed in rage.  
"No!" Claire moaned "It's not fair! After all we've been through, it has to end like this?!"   
The creature climbed out of the carriage, completely unfazed by the wind. It threw its head back and roared again, its war-cry sending shivers up my spine.  
Then, at that moment, somebody heard our prayer.  
Another noise became audible above the roar of the creature and the cry of the wind. A thumping sound.   
My heart leapt into my throat. The thumping of the blades of a helicopter.  
Claire and I looked up, and beamed as we saw a blue Umbrella helicopter, piloted by Chris, move in over the top of us. It was able to keep up with the train, but it was still wobbling slightly.  
"I CAN'T HELP YOU UP! GRAB ONTO THE SKIDS!!" Chris yelled, Sherry waving at us through the window.  
I grinned, and turned to Claire.   
Kingdom's coming, Kennedy, it's frigging well coming!!  
Two minutes.  
Claire and I grasped the skids, wrapping both our arms and legs over the individual metal skids. I felt the surface beneath me fall away as Chris tilted the 'copter up, and rose into the sky. But it wasn't over yet.  
The Neo-Genesis saw us rising into the sky, and I looked down to see it reach up with a claw for one last kill on its tally-chart. I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain to surge through me as its claws dug into my flesh.  
Then, as I looked down - It hesitated. Then, to my astonishment, it brought its arm down, staring up at me as the helicopter soared into the sky.  
One minute...  
I saw its eyes - And saw that its fury was over. At last, it had had vengeance over those who had created and destroyed it simultaneously.  
Now it was resigned to its fate.  
It bowed its head.  
The explosion of white light made me jerk my head away from the painful brightness of explosion, and I could feel the heat of the fireball as it rushed towards me, and I felt something for an Umbrella creature I had never felt before - Pity.   
The two hundred metre wide fireball decimated the entire train, derailing it in seconds. The fire rushed outwards, and just as I thought the fire would envelop and obliterate me, it began to die. I felt a flame lick my boot - But nothing else. We rose up into the clear morning, my arms screaming at me to let go.   
Chris continued the journey for another minute, before he gently lowered the craft so that it was merely half a metre above the waving grass.   
Claire and I dropped immediately, lying exhausted on the softness of the grass.  
We lay beside each other, staring up at the sky.  
I heard the helicopter land about ten metres away, the sound of the blades fading and then dying.  
I breathed, staring up at the sky.   
For a while, that was all I did.   
Stare up at the sky.  
"You okay?" Sherry asked, falling beside me.  
"I feel awful"  
"That's a 'no' right?" Sherry grinned.  
"You can read me like a book"  
"Heh. I am your sister, Leon"  
She fell on me, burying her head in my chest. I felt Claire slide up beside me, and I held her close.   
"Is it over?"  
"It's never over 'til the fat lady sings"  
Chris, who was kneeling beside us said  
"Claire? You ready to sing something?"  
Claire kicked Chris, who was in hysterics.   
Then, Rebecca put down both Steve and Ada between us.   
"Here they are - I've just got to say, they're soooo sweet-"  
"Yeah, yeah - We know" Claire said, grinning.   
I just admired our children for a moment, looking at their sleeping forms. One day, they'd be like their mom and dad.   
Rebecca and Barry also collapsed on their backs, just lying there.  
"Chris? You ready to join our cloud watching party?"  
Chris shrugged  
"Why the hell not?"  
Claire turned to me as Chris lay down in the grass too.  
"You know..." I whispered "...I saw something today that I've never seen before"  
"What's that?" Claire replied.  
"The Neo-Genesis...it was about to kill me...and then it didn't..."  
"What do you make of that?" Claire asked me, sweetly.  
"Is it possible for an Umbrella creature to show mercy on a person...?"  
Claire shrugged.  
"Doesn't matter, really. It's dead now, as is all the information for the GeVolution virus is burned up and destroyed"  
"Yeah, I guess so..."  
We lay there, staring up at the sky again.  
"It's a beautiful morning" Claire said.  
"It's still dawn though" I said, softly.  
The sun rose. So did our ambitions and hopes for the future. This battle was over, but the war was far from won.  
  
EPILOGUE  
  
Still Dawn  
  
Hark the herald Angels sing, glory to the new born king!  
The house had been decorated quite nicely in time for Christmas, holly sprigs were stuck up in the corners, and one of us had even made an effort with some tacky looking streamers. There was some tinsel hanging off the pictures on the walls, and Chris had even gone out of his way to find us a real Christmas tree.  
He'd brought it in with Barry, and I remember Jill complaining in a joking kind of way about the needles on the carpet, which Chris gave her a bemused look for saying so.  
It was Christmas Eve.  
It was now at any rate. It was now ten or so days since we'd arrived by helicopter back in Prague, the authorities confused, but uninterested in our arrival. That suited us fine, we didn't want any attention.  
We stayed there for three days, before we took a flight back to Britain, where we now were. It didn't surprise us to hear the radio announcement next day.  
It didn't surprise us to hear that Finzustown (on the English channel) had been wiped off the map by - get this - An explosion at the Nuclear power plant!! We knew better, but we didn't want to say that we knew it had been obliterated by a Nuclear missile to deal with the problem of a virus devastated town. Naturally, Umbrella would try to cover their tracks. They would always try to cover their tracks, but we'd follow them all the same. But, just then we turned our backs on Umbrella, and decided to enjoy the rest of the holiday season.  
Realising that there was only a week before Christmas and no arrangements had been made, a rush of panic buying and decorating   
London had finally cheered up, lights were strung up outside, glowing brightly through the window panes as a small choir outside bashed out Hark the Herald Angels Sing.   
We were on the first floor, Rebecca was preparing the punch as the Christmas atmosphere flowed through the house in a way that just made everybody cheerful. Even Barry yelled out in that deep rumbling voice of his  
"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!"  
We'd just laughed, and shook our heads. Steve and Ada were sleeping. Claire and I stood on the balcony, looking out onto the Thames and the glowing Christmas lights of the city.  
"At night it can look so beautiful" Claire whispered to me.   
"Yeah...It's amazing what effect Christmas can have on people"  
"Yeah, they stop being so damned miserable for a change"   
We both laughed.  
It was a cold night - But we didn't care. Then, there was the sound of carol singing from within the house. Somebody had stuck on a Christmas CD, and the strains of A Winter Wonderland filtered up to us.  
Claire laughed, and I just shook my head in bemusement.  
"At least they're getting into the swing of things" she said, happily.  
There was a cough, and I turned to see Sherry standing there.  
She smiled, and I reached out with my loose hand.  
"C'mon, give us a hug" I said, and Sherry smiled even wider and threw herself against me, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Claire smiled as I stroked Sherry's hair.  
I took Claire with my other arm again, and all three of us stared up into the starry night.   
Oh starry night, the stars are brightly shining.  
That was true.   
We were mesmerised by the beauty of the night, the darkness illuminated by the Christmas light.  
"COME ON!" Chris yelled grinning, coming up behind us "YOU'RE MISSING THE PARTY!!" and then he ran downstairs again.  
We looked at each other, and grinned.  
"Race you there" Sherry said  
"You're on" Claire and I said in unison.  
  
TO BE CONCLUDED IN:  
  
The Umbrella Chronicles#3: Apocalypse Rising  
  
NOTES: I will be back! No need to panic!   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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